What If
by aslanbrooke
Summary: ...Phoebe had gotten pregnant much earlier in the series? Note: I will be following the episodes VERY closely in many chapters.
1. Sensing a Presence

Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I do not own Charmed.

Chapter 1: Sensing a Presence

The power was exhilarating.

In her current state of mind, Phoebe Halliwell could think of almost nothing else. As far as she was concerned, having the power of a warlock was close to having the power to move hell and earth. In fact, it was the power to bring hell on earth. She and her sisters had spent too long saving people who would never be grateful for everything they'd sacrificed for the cause. What had they gained in all that? No social life and no recognition. Now, all of that was about to change. They just needed to find their oldest sister, and the world would be theirs for the taking.

But first, she needed to change. Hence the reason she was going into her room instead of looking for her older sister. But she didn't even have the chance to start taking her clothes off before she was interrupted.

"Phoebe," a deliciously familiar voice called from behind her. Phoebe spun around. There, coming out from behind her door, was her half-demon ex-boyfriend, Cole Turner. Cole looked every part the handsome former ADA—Phoebe knew that many an assistant had swooned at his amazing good looks—but that wasn't all he was. Cole's mother was a demon, and it was through her that he had inherited his demonic half, the much-feared Belthazor. Truth be told, that was the half that Phoebe's current personality ached to see.

"Cole, you're okay!" she exclaimed. Truly, she'd been wondering if she'd see him again after sending him off to look for her sister. Cole had pissed off the entire demonic 'community' when he had turned his back on evil for the love of a witch. Phoebe intended to _repay_ him for that as soon as she was able.

Cole shrugged. His life was no picnic these days, so 'okay' was a subjective term. "Yeah, barely," he replied, thinking of the close call he'd had on the way back.

"Any demons spot you?" Phoebe wanted to know. Cole frowned. She sounded strangely flippant and uncaring, given the conundrum they were in.

"Just one," he replied.

"Oh no." Why did she sound so strange?

"Don't worry," Cole reassured her. "See, he won't be telling anybody anything." Not after what he'd done to him.

Phoebe's reaction worried him. "The big bad Belthazor strikes again," she all but cooed. Cole's worry deepened, and suddenly, it all made sense. The link between the sisters and the book…before, it had only ever worked to their advantage. Now it was being used against them, in the worst way possible. Knowing his words wouldn't make any difference given her current mindset, Cole still felt he had to say them.

"Not anything I'm proud of." And he wasn't. That would have been stranger than her behavior, if he hadn't already made his decision to switch sides weeks ago, when he'd first revealed himself as Belthazor.

Phoebe, as expected, didn't react to his words as Cole wanted her to. "Why not?" she asked. "You should be."

Defending himself wasn't bad, of course. It was just…he did not take nearly as much pleasure in the kill as he would have before. Just went to show how much this human woman had changed him. And now, he wanted to change her. Back into the do-gooder Charmed sister-witch she'd been when she'd saved him.

But before he had any time to think on that, Phoebe decided to act. Without warning, she grabbed his face and kissed him. Cole had to admit to himself that it was intoxicating. Kissing Phoebe was unlike anything else. The taste of danger was always there, and usually it added a little flavor to their love-making. This time, though, it tasted wrong. This time, he was attempting to do the right thing while his lover spiraled off in the wrong direction.

Reluctantly, Cole pushed her away from him, and struggled to get his mind back on track. Prue. Right. "Phoebe," he breathed raggedly. What was that information he'd wanted to pass on? Oh, yes. "If what I found out is true, Prue's in serious trouble. She's been forced to marry a warlock."

Phoebe frowned. "Figures that bitch would steal Piper's thunder."

Cole had to keep reminding himself that it wasn't the normal Phoebe he was talking to, and that her reactions shouldn't be indicative of her true feelings towards her sister. It was unnerving, though, to see evil speaking through Phoebe Halliwell's lips, especially towards one of her sisters. He shook his head. "No, you don't understand. A high level priestess named Dantalian is rumoured to have married them," Cole began, but he was distracted when Phoebe began untying her top. Ignore it, ignore it…easier said than done. He refocused on the task at hand. "And she's got the power to turn Prue evil and turn you evil, too. That's what's happening here."

"So?" Phoebe responded, moving towards him once more. "Isn't that the way you want me?"

And then she kissed him again.

Cole struggled to respond. Once again, he somehow managed to find the strength to separate the two of them, and forced the words out: "No. That is not how I want you to be. It's not how I want us to be. Our only chance is if we're both good."

That was the complete and utter truth. Cole didn't know how good he'd be at being her kind of good, but he would try. By the gods, he would try. If only Phoebe would let him.

She wasn't going to. "Love is love," Phoebe insisted. In her current state of mind, nearly drunk on the exhilarating powers of an evil warlock, she couldn't understand why he didn't think the same. Cole had been raised evil and he loved her. Why couldn't he understand?

Cole shook his head. "There is no such thing as evil love," he asserted as strongly as he possibly could. "It's just gratification, lust."

That was not the response Phoebe was looking for. She wanted Cole to love her, she needed Cole to love her, whether she was good or bad. Only it appeared his good half wasn't capable of doing that. She would have to turn to his other half.

"You know what, Cole? Your human half is kind of preachy. I think I want Belthazor back."

Never, in his entire life, did Cole ever think he'd hear a witch say that, especially not Phoebe. His heart clenched in despair, as her statement proved just how far gone she was. If she went even a few steps further, she might go beyond that point of no return. He couldn't let that happen.

"He's not coming back." If he did, then all would be lost.

"Oh, no?"

And then she hit him. Cole doubled over as Phoebe's knee found its way to his gut. He'd known she could hit hard, but he'd forgotten just how hard she could hit. It felt even worse because he'd never expected an attack to come from her, not after they'd saved each other in the mausoleum and she'd let him go. It was almost the worst betrayal of its kind, only mitigated by the fact that he knew it wasn't really her. Still, that didn't make the physical blows hurt any less. Not wanting to hurt her by defending himself, Cole retreated, trying to block her attacks without instinctively striking back in return. Through the pain, and his own rising anger, he heard the words she was speaking.

"I. Want. Belthazor!"

It was almost as if she'd spoken the magic words. All the frustration, and anger, and fear that had been pent up for the past several months came to the forefront and built on the anger that was building in response to the assault. Against his human will, Cole felt his anger soar—not just at her, but at himself. Because he wasn't strong enough to hold back his reaction. He felt the familiar sensation of his features shifting and rearranging themselves. He grew, gaining several inches that his human half lacked. His mouth rearranged itself as teeth elongated and his finger nails morphed to become demonic claws. His ears stretched backwards, growing points that hadn't been there before. Most noticeably, his hair disappeared and his skin tone changed, going from a normal Caucasian white to a deep red with black stripes on his face and limbs. Thus transformed, Belthazor stood up and glared down at the human female in front of him. She glared back at him, utterly undaunted by his frightening appearance.

Now hidden beneath his alternate persona, Cole smiled. He liked that fire in Phoebe. If only she was using it for good instead of evil.

As was his habit whenever he transformed, Belthazor stretched out his demonic senses to feel the presences of those around him. The middle sister-witch, Piper, was downstairs. Leo, the ever-present Whitelighter, was actually absent for once. Phoebe was right there in front him.

But…

Her presence didn't feel right. Something else was there, not corrupting it, but altering it. It was almost as if another presence was intertwined with hers; not quite a part of hers, but not quite separate, either. It perplexed him, and that uncertainty gave Cole some of the control he needed.

The rest was given to him by a knocking at the door, and the shifting of Piper's presence from downstairs to right outside the door. "Phoebe?" she called. "What are you doing?"

Cole took advantage of the interruption. "Dantalian's coming for your book," he forced out. "You'd better be ready."

And then he shimmered out.

Phoebe stared at the spot he'd been standing, just as Piper came through the door. "What's going on in here?" the middle sister wanted to know.

Phoebe sighed. "Nothing, unfortunately."

XXX

As he shimmered through the different realms, some familiar, some not, Cole reflected on what he had felt at the manor. Phoebe's presence had always felt exciting to him; first because she was a powerful witch and his prey, and then because she was a powerful witch that he happened to be in love with. It was a subtly shifting thing; he knew that she hadn't fully developed her powers yet, and it made sense that her presence would change as she changed. It also made sense that it would change drastically if she switched sides in the fight of good versus evil. Cole was tempted to believe that this was the cause of the anomaly he had detected in her presence, but something held him back from making that assumption.

This was too drastic. Even though she was evil, it wasn't as though another presence should have meshed itself with hers. If anything, that presence would have been bigger, stronger, and darker than what he had detected. But it wasn't. This one was small. If he had to describe it, Cole would say it was more like a steady, glowing ember.

Most confusingly, it was an ember he had never felt before. Cole could remember all the different types of spiritual presences he had detected over his last 116 years of life: normal humans, priests, priestesses, witches, whitelighters, witch doctors., demons, warlocks, seers, the Oracle, the Source, and everything in between. None of them fit the bill. It wasn't a normal emotion for him, but Cole was worried. This presence was totally unlike anything he had detected before.

Or…maybe it wasn't.

With a start, Cole realized that it _wasn't_ totally unlike anything he had ever encountered before. Strange as it may sound, the presence felt ever-so-slightly familiar; that was part of what made it so confusing. _'In some ways,' _he thought as he examined the issue much closer, _'it feels a lot like my breed of demon…like my mother or even myself…just weaker.'_

But that wasn't all. While this unknown presence _did_ feel oddly like himself, that wasn't all Cole had detected. It also gave echoes of a witch's presence, which was always combined with that of a normal human. That was probably why Cole hadn't detected it at first; it was so closely aligned with Phoebe that it passed right by his notice.

In fact, as much as it felt like himself…it also felt like Phoebe.

The thought made Cole Turner, ex-ADA and current demon-on-the-run Belthazor, stop dead in his tracks.

XXX

High Priestess Dantalian's lair proved ridiculously easy to find. Leo's gift for finding a charge in trouble had failed him, but that was because of one key difference between the Whitelighter and the sisters as they were now. He was good, while the Charmed sisters had been corrupted with evil. Now the two younger Halliwell sisters put their new 'tracking' abilities to use: finding their missing sister so the three of them could rejoice over their new powers together.

One second, they were safely ensconced in the old Manor, and the next, they were standing in a dark room—or was it the ruins of a castle?—that neither of them had ever seen before. Phoebe felt a smile spread across her face. Her new powers _rocked!_

"Whoa," Piper commented beside her.

Phoebe looked around. "Are we there yet?" Then she spotted her targets. There, laying only feet in front of her, was Prue. She appeared to be resting on a slab of sorts and beside her was a man they'd never seen before. Probably the warlock she was supposedly being forced into marrying. Too bad he wasn't handsome.

The High Priestess Dantalian looked up, annoyed at her work's interruption. Still, though, she was victorious. "Too late," she sneered. "I've got the book."

Phoebe was unimpressed. "Yeah, well, you know, it takes awhile to learn how to use it. Trust us."

Wasn't that the truth! Piper continued her sister's line of thought, as she suggested, "How about, in the meantime, I freeze your head and shatter it?" That sounded perfectly acceptable to her.

Not so to Dantalian. She began to chant. The sisters were powerful, that was true, but… "I may not be powerful enough to fight you yet, but they are." Dantalian gestured to the two prone figures on the slab. Suddenly, they weren't so prone anymore. Prudence Halliwell and Zile rose as one to glare at the other two sisters.

Phoebe started; she hadn't been expecting that. "Whoa, Prue, hey, hi," she greeted, suddenly feeling a little bit nervous. Prue was the most powerful of them all… "You don't look so good."

Dantalian smirked. "Zile, Prue, eliminate them," she ordered.

"Prue, ignore her," Piper pleaded. Evil or not, she really didn't want to fight her older sister. "Come on, come with us," she very nearly begged, "We're your sisters."

That hardly seemed to register with the oldest Halliwell sister. "I'm his wife," she tossed back, "not your sister."

And then Prue did the unthinkable. She used her power on her two younger sisters. Phoebe gasped as she felt herself take flight. She'd been tossed into walls many a time, of course; that went hand-in-hand with fighting demons. Still, though, she'd never been attacked by her sister. And Prue wasn't holding back. Hitting the wall was going to hurt.

Except it didn't. The strangest thing happened. Instead of hitting the wall, Phoebe felt herself fade out of existence for a split second. The world around her changed colors briefly, becoming a blurry black before it re-solidified into itself. Phoebe looked down. Yep, those were her own feet planted firmly on the ground. She hadn't hit the wall after all.

These new warlock powers were really something else.

XXX

Already stopped dead in his tracks, Cole felt himself freeze as a familiar sensation washed over him. He had been trained to remain aware of others' presences, especially those of witches and demons. It was easiest to track other demons of his own kind, as their energy signature was familiar to him. It let him know where they were and what they were doing, and he had come to identify almost every action with a particular sensation.

This particular sensation felt like shimmering.

But it was tied in with Phoebe's. He literally felt her presence shift for a split second, before reappearing where it had been before. This was no warlock blink. In that moment before she had shimmered, Cole had felt the presence tied to hers flare in response to a perceived danger. Phoebe wasn't a demon; the only way she could have shimmered would have been if she had somehow accessed another demon's powers. And that 'demon' felt very like Cole and the woman herself.

Another presence attached to hers—or perhaps _within _her would be more accurate…a presence that was small…that felt like a witch and a demon…like him and her…and Phoebe's newfound ability to shimmer…

Cole didn't realize he had stopped breathing until all the air left his lungs in an explosive release of shock. His heart was pounding—with what emotion, he didn't know. But he _did_ know one thing—what _all_ of these things meant.

Phoebe was _pregnant_ with _his_ baby.

XXX

The mood in the manor was possibly the lightest it had ever been. Despite feeling majorly off-kilter, Phoebe was smiling. Leo had been restored; apparently vanquishing Zile had broken the sisters' bond with evil and reversed their evil deeds. That didn't change the fact that they had committed those evil deeds, though, and it shook each of the three sisters to their very core.

"It's okay, Phoebe, it wasn't the real you," Leo reassured her when she tried to apologize for killing him. He added, "Or you, Piper."

It was Prue who wisely correct him. "Wasn't it?" she demanded. She shook her head, and continued, "I mean, on some level, it was me. I felt it. They didn't just plant evil inside of me, or us, for that matter. There had to be something there for them to turn to begin with."

Truer words had never been spoken, but…"That doesn't make you evil, Prue," Leo reasoned. "You have to choose to be evil voluntarily."

Something inside of Phoebe settled at that. Evil was a real threat in their lives, and knowing that she hadn't doomed herself to darkness with her actions was one of the greatest reliefs she could experience. Now that she was able to think a little more clearly, as much as she hated to admit it, it had been kind of fun. In a very bad, twisted sort of way.

"Phoebe…" Prue warned. Her sister jumped when she realized she'd voiced that thought out loud.

"Well, it was fun for a while," Phoebe defended. "I mean, to be able to do whatever we wanted whenever we wanted with no consequences."

Piper snorted. "My fiancé being shattered into a gazillion pieces is kind of a consequence," Phoebe's older sister reminded her.

"Thank you," Leo responded courteously. The sisters might have been 'under the influence' but being _killed_ by them still stung a little.

Prue was still speaking. She continued, "Still, I kind of understand what Phoebe is saying."

Phoebe stared at her sister incredulously. "You _do?"_ she couldn't help asking. She and Prue were _not _known for getting along, and these last few weeks had been especially tough on their rocky relationship.

"Mm-hm."

"Ooh, am I detecting a thaw in our rift?" Phoebe inquired hopefully. She really didn't like being on the outs with her sisters.

By contrast, Prue wasn't quite willing to let her grudge go just yet. "All I'm saying is if evil weren't enticing, why would there be any?" she asked rhetorically. "I mean, you know, to pretend that we're never attracted to it, it's like pretending that it just doesn't exist."

Uh-oh. The words 'attracted' and 'pretending' had come up. That was not a good subject between the oldest and youngest Halliwell sisters.

"Something tells me Cole's name is about to be brought up," Phoebe muttered. And they'd been doing so well, too!

Prue sighed. She definitely hadn't forgiven Phoebe for keeping _that_ particular secret, but she couldn't exactly change it, either. Maintaining the rift between them would only encourage her to keep more secrets. "Look, I definitely do not like the fact that you lied to us about vanquishing him," Prue started out, and then hesitated. "But I have to admit, after taking a trip down the dark side, I sort of understand it a little better. The problem now is that I realized Justin is just so boring."

Okay, there were a few things wrong with that statement. One thing was that Phoebe hadn't been attracted to Cole just because he was exciting, dangerous, and evil. She was attracted to him because he was a good person deep down, and the fact that he was after a century of _doing_ evil deeds just meant he was that much stronger. That said, at least Prue wasn't completely condemning her for everything she'd done. Her admission wasn't quite what Phoebe had been aiming for, but she'd take what she could get.

Leo sighed. "Well, scratch one name off the wedding guest list." One down, too many more to go…

Piper's words, however, shocked him. "Actually, scratch them all. I cave. Our lives are just way too bizarre to have any sort of normal wedding. I don't know what I was thinking," she paused, and then moved to a completely different topic. "Phoebe, by the way, you never mentioned where you got that premonition from."

Oh. That. Phoebe's heart sped up in nervousness. In all the to-do with Dantalian and being evil and all, she'd forgotten to tell them that Cole was back. In fact, she didn't really want to tell them that Cole was back. Not until she'd had the chance to talk to him, anyway.

So she dodged the question as best she could. "Right. Um, you know, something tells me that you wouldn't believe me if I told you anyway. So let's just say I got in touch with my evil side. Something that I will never do again."

XXX

Taken the wrong way, that statement could have been a lie. Phoebe made her way into the mausoleum, fully intending to meet her demonic ex-boyfriend. As soon as she had been able, she'd escaped the Manor and made her way here, to the one place she knew was a safe meeting point. It had occurred to her that Cole might not be here, but Phoebe had quickly discarded the thought. She knew that he would want to meet as soon as possible, and she wasn't wrong. Sure enough, there was Cole standing in the middle of the room, beside his father's crypt. He was watching her expectantly, and Phoebe got the feeling that he'd been waiting for awhile.

Cole cleared his throat, somewhat nervous. This was awkward; last time they had met, they hadn't had to worry about each person's perception of the other (what with Phoebe being evil and all), but now they did. It was unsettling, and made all the more so by the news he had to tell her. So he decided to start small. "How'd it go?"

Phoebe stepped closer, feeling more than a little nervous herself. She thought that Cole might be feeling the same way, and was both grateful and annoyed by his attempt at trivial conversation. "Everything's back to normal again." Except that everything being back to normal again made all her responsibilities come crashing down on her with crushing force.

"Good."

"Yeah, good."

It was only a few seconds, but Cole felt like they passed an eternity in the silence that echoed between them. He could see something he didn't like in her eyes. He just didn't want to accept it.

"It's not enough, is it?" he finally worked up the courage to ask. "What I did doesn't change your mind about us, does it?"

"No," Phoebe whispered. She loved him, she really did, but she also really believed that choosing him could be a disaster. If the Elders had a problem with a witch and a Whitelighter, what would they think of a witch and a demon? Phoebe didn't think she could withstand their wrath when it had almost destroyed her sister. Besides, even she didn't think a relationship between a witch and a demon who had betrayed and tried to kill one another was the best course of action.

Cole could see all of those thoughts running through her head; he had thought them himself. But they couldn't just walk out of each other's lives, not when they now had something physical binding them together. He had to tell Phoebe. She had to know. "Phoebe," he said at last, sounding much calmer than he felt. "There's something I have to tell you."

Phoebe frowned. She had expected him to protest her decision outright, not react as calmly (though not totally calm) as he was now. She was wary of whatever it was he had to tell her. Something told her it wasn't a small matter, either. "What?"

"In your bedroom," Cole began, trying to find his nerve. Since when had speaking become so hard? Since he had found out Phoebe was pregnant with his baby. "I sensed a presence tied in with yours. At first I thought it was just the evil…"

"So?" Phoebe knew that Cole could sense presences. She also knew that being evil would warp her presence to his senses. Why would that disturb him?

Cole finally found the tail end of his courage, and tugged on it. "But it wasn't. It was small…if it had been the evil, it would have been bigger, would have overwhelmed you. It didn't. Instead, it was so closely wrapped in…wrapped _up_…by yours that I couldn't sense it in my human form."

Phoebe nodded, trying to urge him on. What was he trying to tell her?

"It felt so much like you—but it felt like _me_ too."

At that moment, Phoebe would swear that her heart momentarily stopped. All of a sudden, she knew what he was getting at. But she needed to hear it explicitly spoken aloud. "_What?"_ she whispered.

From the look on her face, the rigid tension in her body, and the tone of her voice, Cole knew that she had understood what he was saying. He plunged onward.

"Phoebe, you're pregnant with our baby."

To say that Phoebe Halliwell was shocked would be an understatement. For her, the moment Cole told her she was pregnant with his baby was the moment the world seemed to stop. _Pregnant!_ But she couldn't be pregnant, she was a witch and he was a half-demon, and, and, and…The very small portion of Phoebe's mind that hadn't been knocked spinning by the news thought back over the last couple of weeks. She realized that she had been feeling kind of under the weather, but she'd written it off as stress. And that really strange way of magical dodging she'd used earlier hadn't been warlock-y in nature after all. Phoebe hadn't blinked out like a warlock…she must have _shimmered._

Phoebe didn't even notice she had voiced that last thought aloud, until Cole explained, "Either you tapped into the baby's powers or it was able to act through you."

Neither of them was sure what to make of that. Both of them were still stunned at the idea of a quarter-demon baby. Cole himself had never heard of such a thing, and he had heard of a lot in the last century or so.

"What do you want to do about the baby?" he finally asked. He added, "It belongs to both of us."

It was a question Phoebe did not have an answer to. "I-I don't know," she stammered, backing away. Seeing the distressed look on her face, Cole automatically reached for her and Phoebe frantically shook her head. She couldn't deal with him and their relationship right now. "I need, I need time to think," she gasped, unable to process everything that was going on. "Until I…figure it out…you have to keep your distance. Stay away."

And then she fled. Out of the mausoleum, out of the cemetery, out to the road, into her car, and away from the cause of the most recent upheaval in her life.

Cole was left standing in the middle of his father's resting place, hand still outstretched towards her now-absent form. Slowly, he let his arm drop, knowing he shouldn't be disappointed at her reaction and feeling that exact emotion anyway. Still, there was a spark of hope now, one that Cole had never, ever had before in his very long life. And there was no way in hell he was going to let go of it unless he absolutely had to.

"I'm not giving up on us, Phoebe," Cole whispered into the relative emptiness of the mausoleum. He couldn't, not now, not unless his very existence proved to be the greatest threat to her life.

"And I'm not going away."

XXX

After departing the cemetery, Phoebe did not go home. There was no way she could go home unless she had some kind of definitive proof, one way or the other. She drove right to the nearest drug store and snagged the last available parking spot. The other driver's irritated honk did not matter to her. The only thing that mattered were those innocent-looking, life-changing little tests she aimed to buy with what little money she had to spend.

It was a small store, so it didn't have a wide selection of pregnancy tests but it would suffice. Despite her current need to save money, Phoebe purchased _five_ of the most expensive home pregnancy tests, wracking up a bill of eighty-four dollars and sixty-one cents. She had heard of false-positives, and having multiple tests say the same thing would decrease the possibility that their answers were just that.

As soon as she'd purchased the tests, Phoebe darted into the store's tiny bathroom, other customers be damned. There was no way she could do this at home, so a public restroom it was. She pulled out the pregnancy tests, and looked at the directions. They seemed simple enough. Pee in a cup, place a drop on the test, and wait four to five minutes.

Not wanting to waste any time, Phoebe did her business and followed the directions. She set a timer on her watch. What followed were the longest four and a half minutes of her life. During that time, Phoebe was plagued with worries and anxiety. What if Cole was right? What if she was pregnant? What would she do? What if something else was wrong with her, something Leo couldn't heal? What if, what if, what if…

The watch buzzed, and Phoebe jumped. With her heart in her throat, she silenced the device before reaching for the first pregnancy test. For a moment, she closed her eyes. Then she opened them, and looked at the test.

Two blue lines. Pregnant.

For a moment, Phoebe felt as if a demon had punched her in the gut. Then she snatched up the other tests. Eight blue lines stared up at her. Five out of five. Every single test was telling Phoebe Halliwell, a college student and a single, Charmed sister-witch, that she was pregnant. And with a half-demon's baby, no less.

Knowing no one could hear her, Phoebe whispered, "What am I gonna do?"

Of course, no answer was forthcoming.

Someone knocked, and Phoebe belatedly remembered that she was in a public restroom. She quickly dumped her supplies in the trash, and opened the door to reveal an irate older man. He opened his mouth to berate her for taking such a long time, but Phoebe was gone before he had the chance. Before she even realized what she was doing, she was on the road again, this time with home in mind as her destination.

As she drove, Phoebe once again sifted through her memories of the last several weeks. More specifically, she thought back to when she and Cole had last 'done it.' Phoebe would be the first to admit that her knowledge of pregnancy was limited, but if her calculations were correct, and she was in her first trimester, she didn't have that much more time left in it. Before long, she'd start to show and she wouldn't be able to keep the secret. And she'd kept enough secrets as it was. No matter how much she dreaded telling her family, Phoebe knew that this could not be one of the secrets she kept. She would have to tell them eventually, and it was better to do it today than to put it off any longer.

All too soon, she was pulling up in front Halliwell Manor. For a moment, Phoebe just sat in her car, trying to gather her courage for what she was about to do. When it became clear that she had done as much as she could in that regard, she left the safety that her car represented and into the uncertainty she faced in the Manor. Luckily for her, the rest of her family was seated around the dining room table, sparing her the time it would have taken to go find them. They looked up at her sudden arrival.

Phoebe didn't have to say anything to let them know that she had news to deliver, news that required her attention. Her family took it all in, in a few seconds. Her prolonged absence, her sudden arrival, the tension in her body, and the scared look on her face…oh yeah, she had something big to tell them. And if they were in danger from a supernatural evil, her entrance would have been a whole lot more dramatic so it wasn't that. Besides, Prue and Piper were her sisters. They could tell, intuitively, when a situation was personal, and when it wasn't. This one definitely was.

"Phoebe, what's wrong?" Piper asked in concern.

Phoebe shuffled a bit, and then grabbed a chair to sit down in. If she was sitting down, it would be so much easier to hide behind the table. Also, it meant she wouldn't have to worry about her legs giving out on her like they were threatening to do right now. "Um," she started, "I have something to tell you guys. And I don't think you're going to like it."

She'd meant to deliver the news before she could lose her nerve. But her nerve moved faster than she thought it would, and Phoebe lost it anyway. She hesitated.

Prue's eyes narrowed. "Phoebe," she pressed sternly. Judging by how unsettled she looked, that was probably all it would take to get her little sister to start talking. What other bomb could her sister possibly have to drop on them?

Piper, on the other hand, experienced a powerful flash of insight. She thought back to Phoebe's behavior during the last couple of weeks. Perhaps it was because she knew her sister, perhaps it was her woman's intuition…but she wondered if she might not already know.

"Well?" Prue pressed again. She had very little patience with Phoebe nowadays, and wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible.

Phoebe took a deep breath. She knew she couldn't dilly-dally and beat around the bush, or else she'd lose her courage once more and never get it out. One more deep breath…one, two, three…and then she said it.

"I'm pregnant with Cole's baby."

Silence.

Prue was shocked in a way she'd never experienced before. _Pregnant!_ Phoebe was _pregnant! With Cole's baby! _She didn't know what to say; she was stunned speechless.

Piper took a deep breath. She'd noticed her sister looking a little under the weather, and had assumed it was due to all the stressors in her life. Now, she knew differently. It wasn't all that surprising, really. Phoebe and Cole had been involved for months. It was just he was a _half-demon. _Didn't biology say that beings who were the product of two different species were infertile?

"You're sure?" she pressed. "I mean, are you absolutely positive? How do you know?"

"Positive," Phoebe nodded. "I…I saw Cole today. He's the one who told me where you were, Prue."

"Wait, wait," Piper interrupted. "He's _back?"_

Phoebe nodded again. "He helped me save Prue, that's when he sensed the baby. I haven't been with anyone else since I met Cole, so…"

"It has to be his," Prue finished unhappily. Cole might have helped save her, but she'd think about that later. She had finally found her voice, and turned it on her sister. "Phoebe, how could you let this happen?"

"I didn't let it happen!" Phoebe cried, all of her worse fears about her oldest sister's reaction coming true. Piper watched them in concern. "I mean, we used protection, but it just…it just didn't work. It just happened. We didn't plan for it to happen!"

Prue closed her eyes and tried to regain control of her admittedly volatile temper. All else aside, she knew Phoebe could be telling the truth; birth control wasn't 100% effective. And she couldn't hold _that_ particular action against her sister, as it had been taken before any of them had known about Cole's alter ego. But still…

"What do you want to do?" Leo asked quietly. He wasn't entirely calm about this, but his charges needed his guidance right now, no matter how he felt personally.

"You should go to a doctor," Prue spoke up before Phoebe had a chance to. "I mean, can you really trust anything else?"

Piper nodded, seeing the merit in the idea and wondering why Phoebe hadn't done that first. "Cole could be wrong. The tests could be wrong. And you should make sure that nothing is wrong from all the fights we've had."

Great. In all the worrying Phoebe had done, that was one worry she _hadn't_ thought about. Now she did.

"Yeah," she responded slowly, glad to have a course of action presented to her. But then she looked outside. It was dark. Doctors' offices would be closed. "Should I wait until tomorrow? Or go to the ER?"

Piper shook her head; a potentially unnecessary trip to the ER would cost too much. Besides, she had an idea. "Come on," she stood up, motioning for everyone else to do the same. "I know where we can go."

Half an hour later, the entire Halliwell family (all four members, including Leo) found themselves standing inside the empty waiting area of Parkland Urgent Care Clinic. It operated 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. More importantly, Piper had heard from one of her bartenders that it had an ultrasound machine to assist in diagnosing more seriously ill patients who had not gone to the hospital. That was why she had chosen it; she had just never imagined she would be using it for this reason.

Phoebe walked right up to the front desk. "I think I'm pregnant," she announced for the second time that day. "I already took five pregnancy tests."

"Okay," the receptionist replied, not put off in the least. She knew none of the circumstances. Why these people were here at this hour for this particular reason was none of her business. "Why don't we do a blood test to confirm it—"

"Actually," Phoebe interrupted. She didn't want to waste any more time, and neither did Leo. "I've been hit in the stomach a few times, so I'd like to do an ultrasound to make sure everything's alright."

Of course, the ultrasound had an unusual risk the receptionist couldn't know about. It was quite possible that any demonic abnormalities would make themselves known then, which could be disastrous. Phoebe comforted herself by remembering that Cole was able to appear fully human, and this baby was more human than he was. However, that might mean it was too human to have the power to hide its demonic quarter. That was what Leo was there for, besides moral support. If worst came to worst, he would use the dreaded memory dusty…and they would be on their own figuring something else out. Hopefully a magical abortion wouldn't be necessary.

The receptionist immediately understood the potential gravity of the situation—what she knew of it anyway. "Why don't you fill this form out here," she shoved a clipboard into Phoebe's hand, "and I'll tell the doctor and ultrasound tech."

She hurried away.

Phoebe looked down at the form in her hands. It was all fairly straightforward—but that wasn't what she was thinking about. "Leo," she whispered, mindful of any eavesdropping ears nearby, "why didn't I _see_ this?" Her premonitions were usually triggered by touch, and she had touched her stomach plenty of times. Shouldn't that have caused something?

Leo immediately understood what she was asking. With magic, there were many answers, but there were three he thought were more likely than the rest. "You can't see everything," the Whitelighter reminded her, also in a whisper. "Your powers are tied to your emotions, and it makes sense that they'd be a little off right now…or…" Leo hesitated, not wanting to say it, but knowing he had to, "Something might be blocking them."

That was a euphemism for saying that the baby could be blocking Phoebe's premonitions—at least in relation to itself—and that was a terrifying thought. However, a clinic was not the place to dwell on it, and Leo reminded her of that. "You better fill that out," he pointed to the paper. Phoebe quickly filled out the form, with Piper's help, finishing just as the receptionist returned.

"Why don't you follow me back to the exam room," the lady instructed.

"Um, will the doctor need to do a pelvic exam?" It had just occurred to Phoebe that she needed Leo in the room with her in case of any magical mishaps, but she wasn't exactly comfortable with him witnessing _that_.

The receptionist shook her head. "It's not likely," she replied, much to both Phoebe and Leo's relief.

The woman led them into a room and, after his two older charges declined it, Leo sat down in a chair—he did not settle down, for he'd not been this uncomfortable since he'd first become a Whitelighter. Phoebe barely had time to hoist herself onto the exam table before two women walked in. One was wearing the traditional white lab coat, while the other wore pink scrubs and was pushing an ultrasound machine ahead of her. The doctor and the ultrasound tech.

"Hello," the older woman in the white coat greeted. "I'm Dr. Morrison, and this is our ultrasound tech, Kelly." The pink-scrub lady greeted them briefly, focusing on setting up her equipment. "How are you feeling today, Miss Halliwell? Apparently, you've been involved in a fight, or something of the sort?"

"Sort of," Phoebe admitted. "I mean, I'm fine. I think. I found out I was pregnant, and I just wanted to make sure…"

"When were you hit?" the doctor questioned.

"Awhile ago. Someone body slammed me, and landed on my stomach."

The doctor frowned. "Well, why don't we check it out, hmm?"

Phoebe waited impatiently, while the doctor took all of her vitals herself, something a nurse would normally do. Instead of being reassured by it, she found herself intimidated—it drove home how serious the situation could be. Finally, they finished with that part of the examination and moved on to the next. The doctor stepped back, and the ultrasound technician took her place.

"Now, I'm going to rub some gel on your stomach," the woman informed her. "It's going to feel cold…"

And it did, but at least they were able to move on with the exam. The tech pressed the handheld device to Phoebe's stomach and the previously silent machine seemed to come to life. It was filled with the sounds of her body, a faint echo of her own heartbeat…and the much more distinct sound of another.

Prue barely held back a groan.

Dr. Morrison smiled. "And it appears you are indeed pregnant," she stated cheerfully. The tech pointed to a blob in the middle of the monitor. Phoebe stared. There was…her baby. Correction: hers and Cole's baby. Only it didn't look much like a baby. It just looked like a mass…with a heartbeat.

"How far along am I?" Phoebe heard herself asking. She couldn't be very far along…

The tech leaned in a bit closer. "About eight weeks," she finally decided, and the doctor nodded her agreement. Eight weeks. Not all that long before Phoebe had learned of Cole's true identity, before her life had been turned upside down. Amazing how much had changed since then.

"There doesn't appear to be anything wrong," the doctor informed them. "Ms. Halliwell, I'd say you and your baby came out of that fight very well. Congratulations. You're a very lucky young woman."

Oh, how unlucky she felt right now! Phoebe was pregnant, single, and unemployed. She fought demons daily, and both of her sisters were angry with her. She had lied to them about killing her half-demon lover! And now, to top it all off, she was pregnant with said half-demon's baby!

What was she going to do?

Oblivious to her patient's thoughts, Dr. Morrison continued, "You should probably make an appointment with your obstetrician soon. If you don't have one, I can give you a list of recommended physicians."

"What? Oh, yeah, sure," Phoebe responded distractedly. She couldn't think about that right now. "Um, can I call back to do that?"

"Of course. Just be sure to do that soon."

After that, there was nothing else to do at the appointment. Phoebe paid the copayment—thank _God_ she had the rather measly student medical insurance—and the whole party left. Prue finally spoke up once they were in the safety of the SUV.

"Phoebe," she prodded, with a tiny bit of bite still in her voice. "What are you going to do?"

Unable to give her sister a definitive answer, Phoebe shrugged helplessly. "I have no idea," she replied honestly. And she didn't. She had no idea what she was going to do about her quarter-demon baby.


	2. The Good, the Bad, and the Cursed Pt 1

Chapter 2: The Good, the Bad, and the Cursed Part 1

Two weeks later, Phoebe slouched in her father's car, on the dusty ground of some California ghost town, as if she hadn't a care in the world. It was all a façade, of course. Earlier this morning, her father had called her and asked if she could come out with him to look at the place. Confused but eager to have something non-magical and relatively impersonal to do, Phoebe had accepted. Externally, she was glad to spend time with her father. Internally, she was still a mess. Almost half a month had passed since she had found out she was pregnant, and she still didn't know what she was going to do about the baby.

All magical things aside, Phoebe didn't know if she was even ready to have a child. She had spent the last two weeks agonizing over every aspect of the situation. She knew the baby was quarter-demon, but it was also three-quarters witch. Phoebe also knew, for a fact, that Cole did love her, which obviously meant he wasn't completely bad. Hell, he had turned his back and betrayed the evil he worked for, for her. It followed that their baby wasn't necessarily evil, either.

In an effort to gather more information, Phoebe had also researched abortion. Random facts about the act now bounced about her brain, but what really stuck with her were the images. The pictures of aborted babies haunted her dreams, and only served to complicate matters instead of clarify them. Her sisters were no help; Piper was trying NOT to chime in with her conflicted opinions, although it was clear that she wasn't happy with the situation. Prue was decidedly less pleased; Phoebe didn't even consider asking her for advice.

She had, however, asked Leo and Leo had gone to the Elders. They had said that the child's future appeared unclear in that vague, annoying way they had. Phoebe took some comfort in that they were not saying it was evil and should be aborted. Furthermore, they were being surprisingly non-judgmental of her not-relationship with Cole. That alleviated some of the tension, but it really wasn't helping her make a decision.

The car stopped, and Phoebe was distracted from her inner musings by the sight before her. Victor had called it a dilapidated old ghost town, but it wasn't nearly as bad as he'd described it. All of the buildings were still standing, and all seemed to be in a state of relatively good repair. The only thing that made it look any different from the set of an old western was the fact that, aside from them, it was completely and utterly deserted. It was eerie, really. Phoebe half-expected to see a cowboy stagger out of the saloon and realized with a start that, given the supernatural lives they led, it was a real possibility she would see just that.

It wasn't really a comforting thought.

"All right, Dad, spill it," Phoebe demanded as they climbed out of the car. "What are we doing here?"

Victor looked mock-offended. "What, can't a father spend a little quality time with his daughter? Especially after all the time we've been apart?"

_And whose fault was that?_ Phoebe wasn't fooled. Ghost towns weren't really good father-daughter bonding places. If her dad had brought her out here, he wanted something; she just couldn't figure out what. Phoebe rolled her eyes. "Alright, I take after you, okay? I've inherited all your tricks, especially your fine art of fibbing."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Victor played dumb. He had, in fact, brought Phoebe out here for another reason besides the first one, but that first one was still a reason. Besides, he wanted to ask about Piper and her fiancé. "Tell me a little bit more about this Leo fellow, anyway. How did he and Piper meet?"

That seemed to be a safe topic. Knowing full well that it was a distraction, Phoebe still decided to answer. "Oh, it was a couple of years ago at the house. He was our handyman." Of course, Leo hadn't been _just_ a handyman, but they hadn't known that at the time…

Victor frowned. "Piper's marrying a handyman?" He had nothing against handymen, but the handymen he had met didn't seem to have the highest aspirations in life. Moreover, it would be much harder for them to help support a family. Victor had no desire to see Piper wind up alone after a destitute husband walked out on her.

"Well, no, he isn't really a handyman…" Phoebe stopped and stared. Did he really…? "Wait, you do know…?"

Apparently, he didn't. Victor continued, "All I know is he's a nice enough guy who seems to know the big bad secret. Trust me, it's a lot better for a mortal to know he's marrying a witch before the wedding instead of after. Wish I had."

So he really didn't know! "Mortal. Right," Phoebe muttered, still in shock. Meanwhile, her mind was spinning, for once focused on a problem that wasn't hers. Well, it was, but only by association. How could Piper and Leo not have told their dad the true nature of their relationship? Victor might have walked out on them before, but still, he was back now. He'd said himself it was better to know more about someone before the wedding. How would he feel when he discovered his daughter was marrying a Whitelighter, the type of being he distrusted the most? Phoebe could only barely imagine, and what she imagined wasn't pretty. Not-so-fleetingly, she wondered what her father's reaction would be if he knew her ex-boyfriend was a half-demon? She couldn't imagine that at all.

Leo, Cole, her sisters, and two medical personnel were the only people who knew Phoebe was pregnant. Victor Bennett was potentially going to be a grandfather in the coming year, but Phoebe hadn't had the heart to tell him yet, for several reasons. Piper's upcoming wedding was one of them; Phoebe didn't want to take any attention away from her sister on her Day, especially since said sister was not too happy with her right now. The other, bigger reason was that Phoebe was worried about his reaction. The fact that his daughter was single, unemployed, and impregnated by a half-demon would probably make it a bad one.

But Phoebe wouldn't be able to keep it a secret from anyone that much longer. She was 10 weeks along right now, and she might start to show a tiny bit in just a few more. Phoebe wasn't even sure if she could abort. She didn't know if she tapped into the baby's powers to shimmer or if the baby was somehow protecting itself. If it was the latter, then it stood to reason that the fetus in her uterus could protect itself from an attempted abortion. How it would react, if that was the case, was something no one wanted to think about.

At that moment, Phoebe was once again distracted by a commotion off to the side. Startled, she spun around. Nothing was there but tumbleweed tumbling past. She shivered.

"What?"

Phoebe shook her head. "It's nothing." Actually, it was probably a ghost, but she didn't really want to bring up that possibility to her father, who was still a little nervous around all things supernatural. "I guess that's why they call it a ghost town, huh?"

"What do you mean?" Victor wanted to know. "Did you actually see something?"

It was the tone of his voice that made Phoebe suspicious, and reminded her that there was probably another reason for their trip out here. She whirled on him, "What do _you_ mean?"

"I mean, like a premonition, or whatever you call it," Victor elaborated, feeling a little disappointed that they'd had to get to the point of the visit so quickly. He had actually wanted to spend a little quality time with his youngest. He sighed, "Alright, I confess. I brought you here hoping maybe you could give me a little bit of your help. I just didn't know how to ask."

All he had to ask was, "I need a little supernatural help at this place. Could you help me?" Phoebe couldn't help feeling disappointed that he hadn't trusted her enough to do that. She thought they had moved past that. "Magical help? Dad…"

Victor sighed, and looked around at the deserted, windswept town. "Well, this place seemed like such a good investment. Too good, actually. Made me think that all the stories were true."

That sounded interesting. "I'm biting. What stories?"

"Ghost stories," her father explained, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world (it was). "Something's been keeping people from investing and razing this place for over a hundred years."

"So what, you want me to do a little supernatural investigation?" To Phoebe, it was almost laughable. In comparison to all the other dangerous things she had dealt with in the past several years, a dusty old ghost town was something to sneeze at. Sure, the place was probably haunted; she doubted it was any worse than that.

Victor shifted uneasily. "Well, yeah. I thought you could do a little Feng Shui on the place and maybe see if there's anything going on."

Feng Shui? Really? "Okay, first of all, I don't do Feng Shui," Phoebe pointed out. "And secondly, I can't always get a premonition when I want to."

Of course, the supernatural chose that moment to interrupt her life yet again, as another loud noise echoed forth from the saloon. Phoebe stared at the doors. Nothing stared back at her. "Okay, now I definitely heard that."

Victor didn't. "Heard what?"

From somewhere inside the empty saloon, a glass shattered. Phoebe jumped. Her father, on the other hand, didn't react at all. "Okay, didn't you hear that?" she demanded.

The man beside her didn't have a chance to answer as another man, a cowboy, was thrown out of the saloon. He was translucent, and Phoebe could clearly see the ground beneath his body. Before she had a chance to examine him any closer, another, equally transparent cowboy walked out after him. From the look on his face, it was this second ghost that had thrown the first out of the saloon.

"You're a dead man, Bo," the second man snarled.

"Can you see them?" Phoebe hissed to her father. Mortals could see ghosts, too; that ability did not belong solely to witches.

"See who?" Victor shook his head. He could tell something otherworldly was happening, but he couldn't tell what. It unnerved him.

Phoebe ignored him, despite the fact that she had asked the question in the first place. Assuming that these were, in fact, ghosts, she tried to get their attention, "Hey! Hey, what's going on?"

Neither of the barely-present figures paid any attention to her words. In fact, they didn't appear to hear them at all. The second cowboy continued, "Nobody crosses Mr. Sutter."

Phoebe didn't even have time to blink before the fight began anew. He smashed the man named Bo in the face, causing him to lose his balance once more. The specter flew back and as he fell, he inadvertently fell right through Phoebe. As he did so, the young witch's face suddenly erupted in pain as the rest of her body shivered in response to a spirit not her own passing through her. She was vaguely aware of the sound of a gunshot echoing down the empty street. The ghost cowboys disappeared.

But the pain in her face did not. When Phoebe pulled her hand away from her face, Phoebe was only half-surprised to find it bleeding.

Victor noticed it, too. "Phoebe?" he worried, suddenly regretting their trip out to this place. "Phoebe, what's going on? Sweetheart, you're bleeding."

But _how_ was she bleeding? Phoebe herself had not been struck, the ghost man named Bo had been. Her lip was telling a different story, though. That story was not a good one. She had no idea what had happened or what was wrong, but… "I wouldn't buy this place, Dad. Really, really bad Feng Shui."

The question was, what was causing it?

XXX

Back at the manor, Piper and Prue had just finished their preparations for the rehearsal dinner. Piper had even laid out a place for their absent mother, stating that if she couldn't be there in person, she would be there in memory and spirit. Leo orbed in, interrupting their sisterly moment but he didn't feel too bad about it. It wasn't every day that a man waited to eat his rehearsal dinner with his future wife.

"So, Leo, you nervous?" Prue teased. "I mean, only one more week before dum, dum, dum-dum," she hummed the beginning of the traditional wedding song.

"Thanks," Piper chimed in sarcastically. She could have done without the reminder to be nervous.

Leo shook his head. "Well, as long as no demons come bursting through that door, until then, I am fine."

Leo's timing was perfect. At that moment, Victor Bennett's voice called from outside, "Prue! Piper!"

He didn't sound happy. He sounded worried. Piper sighed, "You had to jinx it."

Phoebe came through the door, Victor right behind her, holding a handkerchief to her still-bleeding lip.

"Hey, Phoebe, what happened?" Prue asked in concern. It looked like her sister had been in a fight, albeit a small one.

"Oh, it's nothing, I'm fine. I just need an aspirin." Oh, wait, she was pregnant. No aspirin for her, then. "I mean, some ice."

"Dad?" Piper inquired, rather urgently. They _so_ did not need this so close to the wedding, but such were their lives.

Victor shook his head. "I don't know what happened. One minute we're just walking around, the next thing I know she's bleeding."

Phoebe was the one who explained what happened, although her explanation of brawling ghosts was rather disjointed. Prue thought she had hit her head, but Phoebe knew she hadn't. She knew what she'd seen and felt; it just didn't make any sense. Not that much in her life ever did.

"Sweetheart, I never would have taken you there if I had any idea," her father apologized profusely.

Well, he had had an idea, but he hadn't known it could lead to anyone getting hurt. Phoebe forgave him. "It's fine, Dad. Really, don't worry about it."

Leo reached towards her to heal her, and Phoebe abruptly remembered one other important fact. She waved his hand off, saying, "No, I'm alright. Dad, why don't you go to the porch and get those town files. You know, maybe there's something in them that can help us."

As soon as he had left, Phoebe rounded on her sister and future-brother-in-law. "Dad doesn't know that Leo is a Whitelighter."

"What?" Prue and Leo exclaimed at the same time. Piper, at least, had the grace to look guilty. Phoebe wasn't the only one who could keep secrets in this family.

"Well, I've been meaning to tell him, but considering Mom had an affair with her Whitelighter, I didn't think he'd really be receptive to the idea," Piper defended herself. Somehow, the explanation had sounded so much better in her head than it did out loud.

Leo couldn't believe his fiancée had withheld that important little detail from her father. Wasn't it better that he had time to get over it before the wedding than surprising him with it after? "Piper, he's gonna kill me when he finds out," the Whitelighter exclaimed.

"Oh, don't be ridiculous, you're already dead."

XXX

Several minutes later, all three sisters had relocated to the living room to cluster comfortably around the Book. Victor and Leo had disappeared to grab a bite to eat, much to Leo and Piper's discomfiture. How long before he found out that Leo was a Whitelighter? Unfortunately, the sisters couldn't spare the brainpower to think of what to do then, as they currently had another problem on their hands.

Without warning, Phoebe doubled over, gasping for breath as she clutched her stomach. What had happened? It felt like she'd just been kicked in the stomach by a 300 pound demon. For a moment, she panicked—had the baby done something?

Prue and Piper rushed to their sister's side. "Phoebe? What's wrong?" Piper cried.

"I-I don't know," Phoebe gasped, straightening a little. The pain actually wasn't that bad, so much as it was startling. "It felt like someone hit me."

"Was it the baby?" Prue demanded.

Phoebe was about to answer that she didn't know when she remembered. The ghostly brawl at the town. The cut on her lip when she hadn't been the one to get hit. "No," she replied breathlessly, "I don't think so. I think it was Bo."

The two older sisters guided the younger one to the couch. Phoebe pulled up her shirt to reveal a blooming bruise on the right side of her abdomen. Piper fingered it gently. "It must have happened the same way you got the split lip," she theorized.

"But how?" Phoebe wanted to know. "He's a ghost. How could I get his symptoms?"

Piper shook her head as she returned to flipping through the book. "I don't know. I just wish I knew what I was looking for in here."

Phoebe bit her lip, trying to think, and then hissed as that aggravated the cut. "Um, the cowboy who attacked Bo, I think he said something about a guy named Sutter. Maybe he's a demon."

Or maybe he wasn't. Prue had been flipping through the town records that Victor had brought in, and thought she might have found something fishy. "Here," she said, pointing to the papers as she set them down on the table.

"Did you find something?"

Prue shook her head, confused. "No, it's more what I didn't find. There's nothing here dated past April 25th, 1873. It's like time just stopped."

"What do you mean, 'stopped'?" Piper's brow furrowed in confusion. "Like everybody died?"

"No, like time stopped moving forward, literally." Things became a little more clear for Prue. She now had an idea of what they were dealing with. "It wouldn't be the first time we've come across a time loop."

Phoebe shook her head; that couldn't be it. "No, we vanquished that demon." Hadn't they? It wouldn't be the first time a demon had come back from the dead, either.

Now that she had an idea of what to look for, Piper resumed flipping through the book. Bingo. "Maybe it's not a demon. Maybe it's a curse," she suggested, pointing to the page they were looking for. She read, "Certain spiritual traditions believe that a great evil or great injustice can be cursed into a time loop until righted."

"So that's probably why this is happening to me," Phoebe theorized, wincing as she moved. "Our job is to right the wrong." She just hoped they could right the wrong in time. Despite the fact that she hadn't yet made a decision, Phoebe couldn't help thinking that the last blow had been frighteningly close to her uterus. The potential effects on her baby were too frightening to think about.

Prue could see what she was thinking. "Have you decided what to do, yet?" she asked quietly. There was no mistaking what she was talking about.

"No," Phoebe replied unhappily. She looked her sister in the eye, and continued firmly, "but I don't want the decision taken away from me."

Her older sister might have said something more, but at that moment, the doorbell rang. Prue was the one to open it, and no one could have been more surprised at the person she found outside. And no one could have been more displeased.

"Hey, Prue, long time. Is Phoebe home?" Cole asked cheerily, holding up a bundle of flowers.

Those flowers were nearly scattered across the living room as Prue launched the half-demon into the air and threw him across the room. Phoebe and Piper spun around as flew behind the couch, landing roughly and just managing to avoid demolishing a table in the process. Cole stood up, feeling a little dizzy from a whack to his head. At least the flowers were alright.

Forgetting her own pain, Phoebe got up and ran to him, and then stopped. They weren't together anymore. How was she supposed to act?

Cole, for his part, didn't seem to be suffering from that same indecision. "Phoebe, hi," he greeted her happily, apparently quite pleased to see her. Or maybe he was glad no one had killed him yet, and had mistakenly taken it for instant acceptance into the family. Either way, he presented her the flowers. Phoebe stared at them; what was she to do with them? "These are for you," he added unnecessarily, seeing her hesitation to take his proffered gift.

Prue was not nearly so hesitant to voice her thoughts, clear as they were. "What the hell are you doing here?" she snarled. "Do you have some kind of death wish?"

Ah, had Phoebe not told them he was back? That would explain Prue's reaction. Or maybe she had told them. That would explain it, too, for entirely different reasons. "I need to talk to Phoebe," Cole replied calmly, watching those deadly hands. At least it didn't appear that she was going to use them to kill him right this very second. That was good, as he did not, in fact, have a death wish.

Temporarily reassured that her angry sister was not an imminent threat to his life, Cole refocused his attention on the woman in front of him. Phoebe was still staring him, having pushed the flowers away. "Phoebe," he asked quietly, cheerful façade dropped, "have you thought about it?" Or maybe what he was really asking was, 'have you made a decision?' By the look on her face and the tension and weariness that pervaded her entire form, Cole would guess not. He knew she needed space; he just wasn't sure how much time he could give her in a matter like this that concerned both of them.

Phoebe took a deep breath. She should have known he wouldn't have stayed away for very long; Phoebe wouldn't have, either, if their positions had been reversed. And of course she had thought about it. Every waking minute of every waking hour, indecision over what she should do had filled her mind. And she was really no closer to making a decision than she had been two weeks ago. "I need more time," she answered, just as quietly as he had asked the question.

Cole blew out a breath. "I know," he murmured, stepping closer for a good look at her split lip. Phoebe froze at his proximity. Should she stay, should she move away, should she…step closer? She had certainly missed the intimacy between them… Better to freeze where she was, rather than make a mistake in front of Prue. Not unaware of her internal battle but choosing to ignore it for the moment, Cole continued, "I just happened to be close to your dad and Leo. And I overheard what happened." So of course, he had shimmered over. There was a part of Cole that could scarcely believe it, but he was worried about the woman he loved. Having never experienced worry or concern for another person before she turned his life upside down, Cole hadn't known what to do about it but come right over to assuage the feeling.

Phoebe couldn't help it; the part of her that she couldn't fully show him was quite touched at his concern. "I'm fine," she assured him.

Of course, she wasn't the only one he was concerned about. "And what about the baby?" Cole wanted to know, giving her a pointed look.

Phoebe winced. "It's fine, too," she insisted, thinking she would have felt it if that last blow had caused worse damage. She reminded him, "I can't truly think about this when you're breathing down my neck about it, so I need you to leave for a little while. At least until I figure this out." Whatever 'this' was. At this point (no pun intended), Phoebe wasn't quite sure.

Prue raised her hand once more, quite willing to assist her sister in removing the half-demon from the premises. Piper grabbed it and lowered the offending appendage. "Do _not_ destroy the table!" she ordered. In reality, what she was saying was, 'don't interfere!' This wasn't their business to get involved in right now, as Cole clearly didn't pose an immediate threat to them.

But something else did.

At that moment, the modern world around Phoebe Halliwell disappeared. Once again, she was standing in the empty street of that old ghost town, only it wasn't so empty this time. Once again, both of the ghost cowboys were before her, but they didn't look like ghosts anymore. They looked as alive as she. As the young witch watched, the same aggressive cowboy raised his gun and pointed it at the other man, who stood vulnerable in the very open street.

He fired.

Phoebe's body jerked. Her belly, which had previously only been sore, exploded in white-hot, burning agony. She was only vaguely aware of the one called Bo throwing a knife at the other man. The pain was all that mattered.

And then Phoebe was once again standing in the middle of her own living room. The vision had vanished. But the pain had not.

Unable to support her, Phoebe's legs buckled and she collapsed on the hardwood floor. Prue, Piper, and Cole all lunged forward, catching her just in time and lowering her safely to the ground. Phoebe barely noticed them. Her hands flew to her stomach, blindly searching out the source of the pain in an effort to make it stop. She found it, and when she pulled her fingers away, they came away bloody.

Terror blossomed from the pit of Phoebe's wounded stomach. "I think I've been shot," she gasped.


	3. The Good, the Bad, and the Cursed Pt 2

Chapter 3: The Good, the Bad, and the Cursed Part 2

"The thing is, they can orb into their charges' lives any time of the day or night…without us mortals even knowing about it," Victor Bennett, mortal, was saying to Leo Wyatt, Whitelighter, as the future father- and son-in-law 'bonded' over cups of coffee. "You can't trust the Whitelighters, Leo. They're sneaky little bastards."

Leo sighed. He'd known from the moment Victor had invited him that this would be an uncomfortable conversation. Of course Leo knew that Victor had good reason to distrust Whitelighters; they were involved in their charges' lives in ways normal mortals simply couldn't be. But it was only the one Whitelighter who had betrayed him by sleeping with his wife! And really, Patty was the one who had done the betraying. Sam had just…been in love. Like Leo was now.

But did that mean he had to listen to his fiancee's father slander everyone of his kind?

"Really?" the Whitelighter tried. "'Cause Piper says they're really, really good guys. More of, like, guardian angels."

Victor wasn't buying it. He'd had the same line fed to him, and look where that had gotten him. "That's the party line, Leo, but don't believe it," he warned the younger man. "You can't trust 'em. They have this tendency to fall in love with their charges. Before you know it, they've stolen your wife. The girls' mother, Patty? She fell for her Whitelighter."

Well, Victor would be right on one charge—certain Whitelighters (namely two) did have a tendency to fall in love with their lovely, caring charges. Sounding appropriately surprised, he asked, "Oh, I thought that happened after you two separated?" Of course, Leo already knew the truth. He just wanted to get a better idea of how badly Victor saw the betrayal. That would give him insight as to how to break the news to him. Or, better yet, have Piper do it. She was the one who had withheld the info in the first place.

"Oh, he was putting the moves on her long before we split up, believe me," Victor snorted, oblivious to Leo's true intent. He continued, "Anyway, you know, we never had a chance to get back together because of him. And, um, you know, then she died. Look, my point is, if you wanna…"

If his future father-in-law said anything else, Leo didn't hear it. That particular tingling feeling ran through his head. The sisters were calling him. And it sounded urgent.

"Uh-oh," he murmured. Something must have gone wrong with the situation involving the town, and someone was hurt.

"What?" Victor, of course, had no idea that at least one of his daughters was in danger.

Leo looked at him. "I have to go," he stated, praying this would all go better than how he feared it would. At least no one was looking at them right now.

The other man was confused. "Go?" he echoed.

"Yeah," Leo tensed up. Nervously, he said, "And I don't think you'll like the way I have to go, either."

Then he orbed out. The world around him faded in a swirl of bright light before it resolidified into the familiar living room of the Halliwell Manor.

Naturally, the first person he saw was Cole Turner. Or Belthazor, if he was the one who had caused the latest problem.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

"Forget about him, Leo," Prue ordered from her place behind Piper on the couch. "Phoebe's been shot."

"Shot?" Leo exclaimed. Of all the things he had been expecting, that hadn't been one of them. A demon attack, a household accident, yes…but not a shooting. Phoebe whimpered in pain from her fetal position on the couch and he rushed to her side. "How did that happen?"

Prue shook her head. "There's no time to explain. Can you heal her?"

Leo tried. He really, really tried. But no matter how much of the healing magic he forced out of his hands, none of it had any effect. The tiny bullet wound low on the left side of Phoebe's belly stubbornly remained open. And bleeding.

While Leo tried in vain to alleviate her sister's agony, Piper looked around. "Where's dad?"

"Seething, probably," Leo replied distractedly. He pushed one last surge of healing energy through his hands and into Phoebe's wound. Still no effect. With a sense of regret and hopelessness he couldn't even describe, Leo was forced to abandon his sworn task, or risk spending too much energy on a futile act.

Cole stepped closer, fearful of what this meant. "What's the matter, Leo? Why isn't it working?" he demanded, a tiny bit of fear making its way into his voice.

"I don't know," Leo admitted truthfully. He was as confused as any of them. This had never happened before. He instructed, "Phoebe, you gotta tell me exactly how this happened."

"I don't, I really don't know," Phoebe forced out through clenched teeth, hugging her pillow a little tighter. "I had a-a premonition and I felt Bo get shot and then I came out of it."

"Leo, can you heal her?" Prue interrupted. That was all that mattered at the moment.

Leo shook his head. Now he was starting to understand what had happened, and there was nothing he could do about it from where he was. "No, because Phoebe wasn't the one that was shot. Bo was."

The hell her sister hadn't been shot! Prue could clearly see the evidence with her own two eyes. "What are you talking about?" she demanded. "She's bleeding!"

"I know, but it's more like a psychic echo," Leo explained. "Phoebe is linked to Bo somehow. Whatever he feels, whatever happens to him, happens to her." Which was an incredibly discomfiting and terrifying notion. If Phoebe could get shot when Bo had been, then it followed that much worse things could happen to her without her ever leaving the couch.

Cole, who had much more experience with the supernatural than all the other occupants of the room combined, easily followed the Whitelighter's line of thinking. "Which means Bo must be magical, too," he stated. Seeing the sisters' confused gazes fall upon him, he elaborated, "The only way they can be linked is through their magic."

"I agree."

"We have to find Bo. Heal him," Cole continued, looking back at the woman he loved. If his eyes weren't failing him, and he was sure they weren't, she was fading fast. Whether or not Phoebe was the one who had been shot, she was still bleeding. The wound was small, and not in an area that was typically deadly, but the bleeding wouldn't stop. Phoebe only had so much time before she bled out. Cole couldn't let that happen. "It's the only way," he added.

But how were they going to do that? "Well, he's been cursed into a time loop with the rest of the town," Piper pointed out. "And we don't know how to get there, let alone where there is."

To Cole, the answer to that was obvious. He reminded himself that he'd been at this a lot longer than they had, albeit from the other side. "Well, it's gotta be a parallel plane existing in the same physical space as the town."

Prue glared at him. She didn't trust him as far as she could throw him—_without_ her telekinesis. "You know, I don't think we need any demonic input right now."

Cole glared at her. "If I can help save Phoebe's life, you sure as hell do." Whether she liked it or not, he loved her sister as much as she did. Prue would just have to deal with that. Now that Phoebe's life was in danger, his involvement was not negotiable.

Leo, at least, understood that. He didn't have to like it, but he would accept it. "We're listening," he stated quietly.

"I move through different planes all the time. It's how I've been hiding from the Source," Cole explained. "Shouldn't be any problem to shimmer to Bo's plane and bring him back here so you can heal him."

Phoebe asked, a little breathlessly as that tiny hole in her side was stealing most of the air from her lungs, "Why don't you just take Leo with you and heal Bo there?" That made perfect sense to her. Quicker, which meant the searing pain in her side would be gone that much sooner.

"I can't." Leo might not mind…much…but the Elders would certainly take issue with it later. "I'm not allowed to work with demons."

Before anyone could suggest that he should break the rules, as they'd all done before, Prue did something that stunned them all. Looking for all the world like she was being forced to eat rotten meat, the oldest Charmed sister announced, "I'll do it." Everyone, especially Cole and Phoebe, stared at her in amazement.

"Prue…" Piper started, and trailed off. Couldn't Cole go on his own? And was leaving these two together really the best idea?

Prue sighed. "Look, I'm not leaving this all up to him," she jerked her thumb at the half-demon standing behind her. Cole snorted. Like he needed a babysitter when Phoebe's life and that of their child were at stake.

Piper was still uncertain. "What if something goes wrong and you get stuck in the time loop and don't get back before midnight?"

That was a valid concern, but not first and foremost on Prue's mind. "It's not the time loop I'm worried about." Cole didn't even bother reacting this time. Maybe her opinion of him would change once he helped her save Phoebe's life. Probably not. Prue was judgmental that way.

"You and Leo should go to the town and see if you can find anything to help break the curse," Prue suggested. To Phoebe, she ordered, "You hang in there, okay?"

Phoebe nodded weakly. She could feel her strength waning by the minute, but she still had some left in her. Without meaning to, her eyes wandered up to meet Cole's. Although he offered her no verbal reassurance, she could see it in his eyes. He would fix this. He wouldn't let her die. Despite all that they'd been through, Cole Turner still loved her. And she still loved him. At that moment, Phoebe wanted to tell him so but she couldn't with everyone else watching. So she just said, "Play nice, you two."

Cole smiled. He knew what she meant. Then he turned to Prue, and that smile turned into a smirk. "Gotta hold my hand."

"This already sucks."

The half-demon and the witch, previously mortal enemies and still enemies in some fashion or another, disappeared from the Halliwell living room. Phoebe willed her muscles to relax back into the softness of the couch. And tensed right back up as Victor Bennett charged through the front door, his fury plain on his face.

"Leo! You lying little piece of—"

Piper grabbed her future husband's hand and quickly stood up in front of him. Now was the time to make their escape. Besides, this just meant they were free to look for clues in the town while their dad looked after Phoebe. Perfect timing, really. She just had to get Leo out of here before Victor worked himself into greater heights of rage.

"Okay, Dad, not now. Stay with Phoebe. We'll be back," Piper hurriedly informed him, right before Leo orbed them out.

"What?" Victor looked at Phoebe for an answer.

She shrugged, and hissed when that tiny movement pulled on the bullet wound. "Don't look at me, I've been shot."

XXX

Prue glared at the back of Cole's head. The demon was downright insufferable. How did Phoebe put up with him? Sure, he'd managed to shimmer them into the correct time and place. Sure, she could understand the need to change clothes—outfits from 2001 kind of stood out in 1873. But did he need to suggest she should dress like a prostitute? Or make her feel more like a fool in front of a stranger? Or indicate she watched too many old movies? Of course, Cole probably liked holding his firsthand knowledge of the time over her head. Prue didn't like it at all. And now she had to watch him succeed where she had failed at getting information out of the very same bartender she'd embarrassed herself in front of. Just because she was a woman, too! They'd been in this place for less than an hour, and Prue was already missing her own time where women could now enjoy the fruits of the feminist movements…which would occur years _after_ the time she was waiting in right now.

Their conversation with the bartender was rudely interrupted by the arrival of three cowboys in the saloon. At least one of them was armed, and Prue and Cole tensed. This could mean trouble.

Trouble arrived in the form of an older man entering the saloon right behind the three younger men. He was clothed entirely in black and carried an air of casual menace about him. Without even asking, the unusual pair knew that this was Sutter.

The man proved their suspicion was correct when he opened his mouth and yelled, "Where is he? Just so you know, I've taken the liberty to print up the evening edition." Sutter held up a newspaper, and Cole would swear that his heart stopped. The headline read 'half-breed to die at sundown.' "Just so you know how serious this is."

And it was serious, indeed. If Bo died, so would Phoebe. They didn't have until sundown. Cole's hands itched to throw an energy ball at the man who dared threaten the woman he loved, but he kept himself in check. They had to find out more about the situation first.

Sutter turned to face a young woman who was sitting at one of the tables. She appeared to be a Native American. The woman appeared to be young, but she carried an air of strength and calm that made her appear wise beyond her years.

"You know where your brother's hiding, don't you?" Sutter sneered.

The young woman met his gaze without fear. "Even if I did know, I'd never tell you. I'm not afraid of you, Mr. Sutter."

So this was Bo's sister. She could tell them where he was. If only they could get her alone and convince her to talk to them.

Sutter taunted, "Well, if you were smart, you would be. Of course, your kind are not, are they?"

Racist old bastard. Prue took a step forward. Cole grabbed her arm, stopping her from causing a problem before they were ready to deal with it. "Hold it," he murmured. "Plan is not to get involved."

Instead, they were forced to watch as Sutter turned one of his men on another with a knife. Fearful that she was about to watch someone (innocent though he wasn't) killed right before her, Prue shrugged off Cole's restraining hand and rushed forward. She shoved the offending cowboy away and wrapped the one named Cal's hand in her scarf.

Her sudden involvement was could have been their undoing. In short order, Prue had started a bar room brawl and very nearly a gunfight. Cole figured they were only lucky because Sutter decided that finding Bo was more important than killing them right then and there. They managed to leave the saloon unscathed with Bo's sister, Isabel. She explained the cause of the animosity between her brother and Sutter. Apparently the nasty old man was in tight with the railroads. He'd come to town a couple of months ago, promising its residents that he would make it a better place for everyone. But in exchange, they'd taken over everything. People had stood up to him at first, but then he had killed the sheriff. There had been no resistance ever since then. Except for one man.

"Why is Sutter after your brother?" Cole wanted to know. That was the pertinent question.

"Because Bo wouldn't back down. He kept fighting, trying to get everybody to take back the town," Isabel explained as she led them down the wooden sidewalk. These people were certainly different from the others. Perhaps Bo was right, and she could trust them.

"Sounds like a brave man," Cole commented. Too bad it seemed like that activism might get him killed.

Isabel nodded. "He is. Too bad the others aren't."

Prue chose that moment to join the conversation. "Isabel, we know that Bo is injured," she put forth. "We know that he's been shot. We can help you, but you have to trust us."

"I do. Bo said you'd come."

And there it was: the connection they'd been looking for. Bo was a psychic, much like Phoebe, although apparently his premonitions came during dreams instead of his waking hours. As Isabel explained, Bo had apparently inherited his gift from their father, who had died when they were very young. Their mother had not allowed them to talk about said gift when they had come to town. The older woman had feared they would all be crucified if the White Men had found out.

Prue remembered the time she'd had to watch Phoebe burn at the stake. She understood. "I know what it's like to have a gift that you have to keep a secret."

Cole understood as well. "And live in a place where you have to hide half of who you are."

Isabel nodded. She led them up to a trio of horses that were waiting, tied at the post. "Come, I'll take you to Bo."

"Where'd you get the horses?" Cole asked.

"I told you. I was expecting you."

Meeting Bo really ought to be interesting. "You know," Cole commented thoughtlessly as he swung up, "I still say we eliminate the threat first, kill Sutter. Probably break the curse anyway."

Prue looked at him. This was exactly why she didn't believe he could ever truly be good. "Yeah, well, we don't know that, which is why we need to get to Bo first," she pointed out. She paused and continued, "You know, Cole, if you want to try your hand at being good, your first instinct shouldn't be to kill."

Cole snorted. Maybe that was true, but Prue was coming from a decidedly different place in life than he was. And while she stood to lose her sister, she still didn't stand to lose quite what he did. He responded, "Yeah, well, maybe you would think a little differently if it was your first chance for a family in over a century at stake here."

XXX

Back in the future, Phoebe had now been lying in the same place on the couch for over an hour. The pain in her side had dulled somewhat, and that worried her. Either she was getting used to the pain, or her ability to feel it was fading. Given the fact that she hadn't stopped bleeding, Phoebe was inclined to believe it was the latter. Slowly, but surely, she was dying.

Victor came back into the room, holding a glass of water. "Here you go. Drink up." Phoebe tried, really. She could only manage a few sips before he strength failed her and he had to pull the glass away. A forlorn look must have shown on her face, for he asked, "What is it?"

"… It's nothing."

He stroked her hair. "Hey, I didn't come back into your lives just to be kept in the dark. I'm your dad, you can tell me anything."

Phoebe began to tremble. She whimpered, "I'm dying."

No. No, she couldn't be dying. Victor had been spending the last hour trying not to think exactly that. Phoebe had explained just about everything that had happened, including the part that a half-demon who was apparently her ex-boyfriend was currently helping her oldest sister save her. Victor wasn't too sure about that part. Weren't demons supposed to be the bad guys? In his admittedly limited experience, demons were not to be trusted. He just didn't have a choice at the moment. What he did know was this: he did not want his daughter to die. "Oh, come on," he tried to convince her otherwise.

Phoebe shook her head. "No, I can feel what's happening to me. It's like something…I can just feel it deep inside me. I-I can't explain it." She really couldn't. Dying was the strangest feeling. For her, it was going slow; she could literally feel both her life energy and her life blood draining out of her body. It was ironic. Now that she was dying, Phoebe found that it was the first time she could truly think clearly about the baby, with no dilemmas or uncertainty clouding her mind. Sure, its father had done evil things. But he was trying to save her right now. He had the capacity to be good. And so did their baby. It would have a much better start in life, surrounded by people who would love and care for it. If only the mother could live long enough for that to happen. With a start, Phoebe realized that she _wanted _to bring her baby to term, regardless of what other people (namely Prue) thought. She wanted the chance to be a mother, wanted Cole to have the chance to be a father. She just had to live long enough to make it happen.

"Your sisters are not gonna let that happen," Victor asserted, "I am not gonna let that happen."

At that moment, Leo and Piper orbed into the living room. Their expressions were grim. "How is she?" Piper wanted to know.

"She's gonna be fine," Victor told her. But there was a strong possibility that that wouldn't be the case, and they all knew it.

"We have to hurry." Piper held up the damning paper they had found in the saloon, the one that would spell out Phoebe's fate if they didn't do something to stop it. "We found out Bo dies at sundown, except I don't think Prue knows that."

"But we have an idea to let her know," Leo added. "Phoebe, if you're getting visions from Bo, maybe he could get one from you."

Phoebe shook her head, making the room spin. Her thoughts were becoming increasingly sluggish as death not-so-slowly approached. "I don't understand."

Piper explained it to her. "Phoebe, if you can will yourself to get a premonition about Bo's death, he might be able to see it, too, and then he can tell Prue and Cole that they don't have as much time as they think they do."

"But I thought you said you couldn't always get premonitions when you wanted to," Victor put in. They were placing all their hope on a plan they didn't know would work, and he didn't like it. He just didn't have a better plan.

"I can't," Phoebe confirmed.

Piper handed her the paper. "You can try."

XXX

Back in 1873, Prue, Cole and Isabel had arrived at Bo's hideout. Despite his instructions to his sister to trust them, Bo was still understandably suspicious of them himself. He hadn't had good experiences with White people. And he had been shot and in pain, making him much more paranoid than normal.

"We don't need your help," the wounded man snarled. "Just leave now."

Prue tried to reason with him. "Bo, my sister gets visions too, and she had one of you getting shot, alright? We're here to help you."

"And help her," Cole added. That was why he was here.

Bo wasn't convinced. His vision had not been very specific, and there was every possibility that the people before him were only imposters of the people he had seen. He pulled out a knife. "It's a trick. Sutter sent you. I know he did."

"No, they stood up to Sutter," Isabel tried to tell him. "You should have seen it."

Her words had no effect. "Just get out of here!" Bo yelled.

Cole glared at him. This was the thanks they got for trying to help him? "We're not going anywhere." Whether Bo liked it or not, he still had to save Phoebe.

Bo glared right back. He had never met anyone quite like this man before, but there was something wrong about him; he could tell. "I know that look," Bo tossed back at him, "Sutter's got it, too. You're evil. I could sense it."

Well, it was more likely that Bo could sense his demonic half. But demonic didn't necessarily equal evil. Cole was trying really, really hard to be good. It was just that, at the moment, it was proving to be a little harder than he thought.

"Alright, then, just look at me," Prue redirected the wounded man's attention to her. Clearly Cole wasn't helping matters, and she could totally understand why Bo wouldn't trust him. "You can't say the same thing about me, can you? Bo, this isn't just about you, alright? My sister will die, too. The whole town will if you don't let us help you."

"They think that something Sutter is going to do will trigger a curse. The kind that Father used to speak about," Isabel explained. She might not be gifted like her brother, but she was good at reading people. These people were trying to help, she could sense that. Isabel just needed to convince her brother of that fact, or all of their lives could be forfeit.

All of a sudden, Prue had an idea. Bo thought they were working for Sutter, trying to trick him. They had to prove him wrong on that count, and what better way to do it than to prove that they weren't so different after all? Supernatural people were well aware that they were a vulnerable minority, and tended to stick together in times of need. They were lifelong members of a very exclusive club, with only in-the-know members allowed, and were far more likely to trust another of their kind.

With this idea in mind, Prue took a deep breath and asked, "If we show you that we have gifts, too, will you trust us then?" She turned to Cole. "Show him."

"Show him what?"

Prue rolled her eyes. Men could be so daft. And the situation was so dire that she didn't even realize that she had just thought of Cole as a man and not a demon. "Your _gift,_" she explained, exasperated, "show him your gift."

Although he wasn't too keen on showing his powers to a stranger he'd only just met, Cole would do just about anything to convince Bo to help them save Phoebe. And so he swallowed his embarrassment at being made to perform in a dog-and-pony show, and demonstrated his least threatening power: shimmering.

Ultimately, that was what convinced Bo that they were not Sutter's henchmen (and woman) come to kill him. There was no way a normal person could fake what Cole had just done, so unless Sutter had gone to hire some 'gifted' people himself (highly unlikely, as he didn't believe in such things), these were, in fact, the people he had foreseen coming to help them.

"Alright," he finally relented. He still didn't entirely trust Cole, but he did trust Isabel and, to a lesser extent, Prue. If their words were to be believed, time was running out for more people than just Bo himself. Trustworthy or not, Bo would have to let them help.

Prue grinned. Finally, something was going their way. Now on to the next step. "Alright, the first thing we need to do is get that bullet out of you," she told him, praying that she sounded like she had removed dozens of bullets before and knew what she was doing. Prue knelt down beside him and raised her hand over his wound. She paused, and warned him, "This is gonna hurt."

Warning delivered, Prue then concentrated on the tiny piece of metal that was her target. She visualized the bullet, trying to imagine exactly what it looked like and how far it had gone. Once she was sure she had a fairly good mental 'grasp' of the tiny metal object, she pulled.

Two things happened at once. The bullet flew out of Bo's flesh, causing him to thrash and yell in agony. One hundred and twenty-eight years in the future, Phoebe Halliwell did the exact same thing, arching her back and screaming herself hoarse as the wound in her stomach suddenly burned anew. At the same time, the premonition she'd been trying for finally came, and it was startling in its intensity. Both psychics, nearly 130 years apart, watched as a tall man in black whipped the helpless man on the ground, while his sister nearby cried at her brother's pain and her own helplessness while being restrained. Another shot rang out. And the premonition ended.

XXX

Still safely within the manor, Phoebe screamed and wailed hysterically. The wound in her stomach still burned in white-hot agony, and she had felt every emotion in that premonition as if they were her own. And they would be, if Cole and Prue didn't do something to stop it. It was overwhelming and Phoebe, stressed to her breaking point, just couldn't take it anymore.

Piper watched in alarm as her sister lost it. "Make it stop, make it stop!" Phoebe screamed, clutching her stomach as though it might be ripped right out. If she continued, she could easily wind up causing more damage to herself (and Bo), and make everyone's problems infinitely worse.

Not knowing what else to do, Piper threw her arms around her sister's thrashing form, trying to hug her for comfort and restrain her for safety. She barely managed to avoid being thrown off. "Phoebe!" she shouted. From the slight hesitation in Phoebe's movements, Piper thought she might have heard her and continued, "Phoebe, you have to calm down!"

Phoebe did hear her. But her body was going haywire and it felt like her emotions had followed its example. She was hyperventilating, and couldn't get enough air, and that scared her even worse than she already was.

"Breathe with me," Piper ordered, demonstrating several slow, deep breaths. That did appear to have an effect, but it wasn't as effect_ive_ as she would have liked. In desperation, she added (perhaps without thinking that this could have the opposite effect of what she was looking for), "Think about the baby! You need to calm down for it, or you'll hurt it."

Piper must've read her sister's mind from earlier, when she'd been thinking along those same lines. Phoebe's breathing, along with everyone else's, did begin to slow as her sister's words registered. Yes. The baby. She needed to think about the baby.

Victor's breathing hadn't just slowed; it seemed to have stopped altogether. _Baby? _What _baby?_ The shock value of those words alone should have been enough to stop his heart, and the part of his brain that was still functioning was surprised that they hadn't.

"Phoebe," Leo called softly, kneeling down beside her. Phoebe focused on him, her breathing now much slower than it had been only a minute ago. "Did Bo see your premonition?"

Had he? Yes, Phoebe thought he had; she was sure she had felt his emotions as he had watched himself be killed through her eyes. "I know he did, I felt him. Nobody did anything. They didn't help him. Nobody did anything," she babbled. Piper laid a calming hand on her back, ready to lead her through several more breathing exercises.

Victor, for his part, didn't know what to think. Demons and magic and death, oh my. "So what do we do now?"

"There's nothing else we can do but wait," Leo informed him regretfully. "It's up to Prue and Cole."

Anger surged through Victor's veins. "And you call yourself their guardian angel? What the hell good is a Whitelighter if all you can do is stand there and watch my daughter die?"

Phoebe and Piper tried to get his attention to calm _him_ down, but Victor was on a roll. He continued, "And another thing! How did my daughter wind up pregnant? Why didn't anyone tell me about this?"

Leo ignored the last part of the rant; it wasn't his business to answer it. He did respond, "I am doing what I can to help by trusting Prue and Cole to solve the problem. Prue isn't gonna let Phoebe die, and neither is Cole."

"Oh, so now I'm supposed to trust a demon?" Victor demanded. "Is he the father?"

"Yes," Leo replied quietly, to both questions. Phoebe didn't look like she wanted to answer, and Piper was occupied comforting her, so he continued, "As much as I hate to say this, Cole loves Phoebe. He took a huge risk to come and try and prove himself to her and he will do whatever it takes to save her life. _Both_ of their lives."

Victor took a deep breath, trying to get a hold of himself. "And how can you be so sure about that?"

This time, Phoebe did answer. She raised herself up as much as her failing strength would allow, and said firmly, "Because he loves us."


	4. The Good, the Bad, and the Cursed Pt 3

Chapter 4: The Good, the Bad, and the Cursed Part 3

Cole chanced a peek out the window of the tiny church they were hiding in. He'd heard the thunder of hooves only a minute earlier and looked out to confirm his suspicions. At least four armed men waited outside, with an untold number waiting in the shadows. He couldn't see Sutter, but Cole knew he was out there. Even to a half-demon such as himself, the situation contained notable threats.

"Sutter's men just showed up," Cole reported, carefully straightening up and pulling away from the window so they wouldn't see him through it. "We need to get Bo out of here."

"What? How did they find us?" Isabel exclaimed.

"We must have been followed," Cole surmised. He glanced at Bo. Although he'd been relieved to have the bullet out of his body, he was once again looking a little weak. The blood loss was taking its toll, and he needed urgent attention. "I'll shimmer him back to Leo, then come back for you two."

But Prue disagreed. "No."

"What do you mean, _no?_" Cole demanded. Phoebe was her sister, she liked to save people; Prue ought to want this as badly as he did! He reminded her, "He dies, Phoebe dies."

"Taking Bo out of here will not break the time loop," Prue pointed out; the time loop was the reason all of this was happening.

Cole didn't understand. "It'll save Phoebe," he said and truly, that was all that really mattered to him. Everything else was secondary.

Prue just looked at him. For once in her life, Prue thought she might actually understand him. No, she might actually _empathize_ with him, something she never thought she'd do with a demon. Phoebe was her sister; Prue desperately wanted to save her, too. But she was still a witch, and defending innocents was still her job. She sighed, "There's more than just Phoebe's life on the line here, Cole."

Of course there was. Cole thought about the life that was growing inside the woman he loved, a life that was created by both of them. It needed, _he_ needed, a chance for it to come to fruition. Quietly, he responded, "I know that."

Given Cole's contrary attitude, Prue knew that he wouldn't ordinarily agree with her that quickly. She didn't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out what he was thinking about and amended her statement, "There's a lot more at stake here than _their_ lives." Prue thought for a moment, and then added, "If you really want to be good, you have to learn that."

Their conversation was abruptly interrupted with a yell of, "We know you're in there Bo! Come out with your hands up and nobody gets hurt! What's it gonna be, Bo!"

Two out of the four occupants of the church jumped. In the emotional turmoil stirred up by their conversation, they'd actually forgotten that they were in danger from the very thing they were trying to stop. Cole could have kicked himself. That sort of distraction could get them all killed.

Cole looked back at the others. Clearly, Prue was unwilling to leave the town to fend for itself; from the looks on their faces, the other two felt the same. And he couldn't deny that there were inherent risks in doing just that, namely that Phoebe would continue to suffer the effects of this never-ending day. He sighed. "Alright, how do we break the curse?"

"I don't know, but I do know that it hinges on keeping Bo alive," Prue replied. They couldn't let Bo die, or Phoebe would, too.

Much to their surprise, Bo shook his head. "No, it doesn't," he contradicted. Bo had been thinking about this, thinking about the vision, thinking about everything his father had told him about curses, and had come up with the only possible answer. He went on to explain, "The curse isn't about me or Sutter. It's about them. The townspeople who stood there and watched me die. The only way is for me to give myself up."

"No," Isabel immediately denied.

"It's okay, Isabel. Have faith," her brother reassured her.

Cole pointed out, "They'll kill you." If Sutter killed Bo, he killed Phoebe. He couldn't let that happen.

"Maybe," Bo admitted. "This curse came from my father's people. It's meant to heal, to teach the townspeople to act without shame. I have to give them that chance."

"Helping them to save you saves themselves," Prue realized. Why hadn't she thought of that? It seemed so blindingly obvious now.

It was. Once again, Cole sighed.

The men outside grinned cruelly as the object of their ill will strode out the door as if he owned the ground he walked on. The quiet pride he carried with him was unbelievable. Sutter and his men would be sure to relieve him of that, and show him just how bad a mistake he'd made by standing up to them. With that thought in mind, the men readied their ropes.

Several minutes later, the relative quiet on the main street of the town was interrupted by the thunder of hooves. The townsfolk tensed; such sounds usually heralded the arrival of Sutter and his men and that was something all of them dreaded. Fearing what they might see, a few terrified souls peered out their windows while a few braver ones dared to venture outside. What they saw made them cringe.

Bo Light Feather was being dragged behind the galloping horses, his hands bound to a rope that was tied to a saddle while his body was ravaged by the rough ground beneath him. The horses stopped, but that brought no relief. No one dared breathe while the battered man was hauled to his feet and yanked over to a man they all feared and hated in equal parts: Sutter.

The man in black, a veritable devil, turned to face him after he had cut away Bo's bonds. "I want you all to see what happens when people cross me!" he thundered.

Distracted as they were by the horrible man's words, no one noticed the arrival of three more horses. Prue, Isabel, and Cole arrived just in time to see Sutter shove Bo to the ground. Someone handed him a whip. Knowing what was about to happen, Isabel lunged forward, screaming, "No! No!"

Prue caught her just in time. Knowing what it would do to Phoebe, she didn't want to see this anymore than Isabel did, but they didn't have a choice. "Don't! He knows what he's doing!" she shouted, struggling to restrain the near-hysterical woman.

Cole's heart pounded as he watched Sutter take the whip to Bo's flesh. Over a century in the future, the object of his heart's desire screamed once again as she felt the ripping bite of the whip against her back, opening long, raised, burning gashes and welts the likes of which she had never dreamed of before. Nearly delirious with pain, Phoebe sobbed for them to stop. And back in 1873, Cole had never wanted anything more in his life than to make that happen. But he couldn't. If they were to break the curse, and Phoebe's suffering, everyone would have to endure it just a little while longer. Thus powerless to ease his lover's pain, Cole clenched his fists and imagined the worst possible death on the man who was causing it.

Prue turned to the townspeople; it was time to play their part in this spectacle. The gathered townsfolk started and stared as she began shouting, trying to rally them to their defender's aid.

"What are you people doing?" Prue's voice carried up and down the small street. "Look at him! He has the courage to fight Sutter for all of you! You can't just stand there and watch him die! You have to do something! You can take him down!"

A low murmur spread through the crowd. Cole stepped forward, hoping to reinforce Prue's words. He called, "Sutter can't take all of you! You need to do what's right!" And what was more astounding than the words coming from the formerly-evil half-demon's mouth was the fact that he meant them. Cole shocked himself with the truth of his words. Phoebe must have rubbed off on him more than he'd thought. Seeing people idly standing by while the man who was fighting for them was killed _bothered_ him. Or maybe it was the similarities between said man and Phoebe. Cole hadn't thought about it before, but now that he did, the two were very alike. And the pain they were feeling was one and the same.

Sutter watched, in growing rage, as the townspeople began to murmur in reaction to these two newcomers' words. "You cannot just stand by and let this happen!" the woman was calling as she moved up and down the street. "Stand up to him! Don't be scared."

But Sutter would make sure they would be. "Nobody crosses me," he snarled, revealing his gun. People gasped when he pointed it at the beaten man's head. He removed the safety, intending to let his bullets do the rest of the talking.

He never had the chance. Sutter's hand exploded in pain and he screamed, dropping the gun. Blood streamed from his fingers and he whirled to see who had done this to him. It was the bartender. The man who had previously flinched before his step was now aiming a rifle at him. His expression bore no sign of the fear he had previously expressed. In its place was only hatred, disgust, and a determination to do whatever needed to be done.

"I think you just oughta leave Bo alone, Sutter," the bartender warned, taking aim once more.

Prue smiled. They had succeeded.

"You just signed your own death certificate," Sutter snarled. But his rage turned into shock once more when the man who had led him to the one whose death he desired, the one whom he had trusted to do his bidding or suffer the consequences, turned on him.

Cal, the same man whom Sutter had stabbed earlier that day in the saloon, pointed his gun at the man who had dared think of himself as his master. The words of the pretty lady who had saved him before had struck home, leaving him with no other choice than to do the right thing for the first time in months.

"If you wanna kill Bo," he stated, clearly and calmly, "you'll have to kill me, too."

Sutter watched in astonishment and horror as, one by one, every townsperson who owned a gun (and it was the West, so there were many) pulled it out and pointed it at him. In that moment, Sutter knew that, no matter how good the men still loyal to him were, he could never take on this many people and win. Cole smiled; in the mood he was in, a defeated enemy was the very definition of success.

And then Isabel, able to contain herself no longer, burst from the protective circle of the townspeople. She ran to her brother's side. She would pay for it dearly.

Seeing this opportunity, the only opportunity that he would have, Sutter grabbed it. More specifically, he grabbed Isabel, yanking her away before she could even finish asking her brother if he was okay. Isabel screamed as she was roughly crushed against the front of his body, and a gun was pointed at her head.

"Anybody comes after me and she's dead!" he roared, enraged, desperate and yes, scared, in about equal measure. The townspeople tensed once again; Sutter was desperate, and a desperate, evil man would do just about anything to get away, including kill the innocent girl he was holding hostage.

Cole watched as Sutter backed away from the angry crowd, towards his horse, still towing Isabel with him. Now was there chance. He murmured to Prue, "_Now_ can we do something?"

They most certainly could. Prue watched as Sutter let go of Isabel to jump on his horse. He spurred the animal into a frenzied gallop, hoping to get away before anyone's bullet could find its mark. That was a mistake. Prue joined the rush of people that moved to chase him, leaving Cole behind to deal with the remaining thugs. He did so willingly and eagerly, relieved to finally be able to release the pent up aggression that had been choking him all day.

Despite the jerky, slightly alien motion of the horse beneath her, Prue's aim was steady. She thought of the townspeople Sutter had terrorized, making them unknowingly repeat the same day thousands of times and preventing them from moving on with their lives. She thought of Bo, who had been betrayed and wounded and had still held strong to his beliefs. She thought of Isabel, who had been forced to watch helplessly as her brother was shunned by the people he protected and brutalized by the people he protected them from. Last but not least, Prue thought of her own sister Phoebe, who was being forced to suffer from an act that had been committed over a century before she had even been born.

Prue fired. Her first shot failed as Sutter veered slightly, but it was his own motion that caused him to topple from his horse. Now even more vulnerable than he had been before, the now-terrified man tried to run away, but Prue fired again. Sutter's body jerked as the bullet found its mark in his back and tore through his chest. Prue gave the dying man no time to take anybody else with him. Instead, she used her telekinesis to send him flying back into the post office. For a moment, everyone halted, listening and watching. Sutter did not get up.

Slightly shaken, Prue took a deep breath. Killing an evil human was not that different from killing an evil demon, but it was the first time she'd done it. Hopefully, it would be the last. "I don't think Sutter's gonna be a problem anymore," she stated.

Bo came up to her. "What about the curse?" he wanted to know.

In response, Prue pointed to the sunset. "It's a beautiful sunset, isn't it?" she asked, smiling. "I don't think there's been one quite like it in 128 years."

XXX

One hundred and twenty-eight years in the future, Phoebe's cries of agony slowed to a halt as the pain throughout her body abruptly vanished. Piper, who had been steadying her and was thus the closest, gasped. Realizing what had to have happened, Phoebe slowly brought her hands to her stomach and raised her shirt. The bullet wound was gone. So were the whip lashes on her back, and the cut on her lip. Even the blood and the bruises had disappeared. Free of pain for the first time in hours, Phoebe breathed a deep, shaky sigh of relief. The time loop, and the psychic connection that had been forged with it, had been broken. Everyone—Cole, Prue, Bo, the townspeople, and Phoebe herself—was safe.

Piper didn't even bother to wait for her sister to utter a word. Instead, she threw her arms around her in a bear hug. She would not be losing her baby sister today. For that, she would be eternally grateful.

Phoebe grunted as two more pairs of arms joined her sister's. Victor and Leo were hugging her as well; Victor had apparently forgotten his anger from earlier. But still, this was uncomfortable.

Phoebe squirmed. "Guys, I can't breathe," she gasped.

Everyone jumped away from her as if they'd been scalded, or as if they'd scalded her. "Sorry," they all apologized at once.

"Thank God you're alright, sweetheart," Victor professed. The relief he felt was so profound that it was indescribable. The one thing a parent feared more than anything was losing their child. He would not be facing that fear today.

Phoebe nodded, almost euphoric at being alive. And she had Prue and Cole to thank for that.

"See?" Victor was still talking. "I told you your sisters wouldn't let you die." Except her sisters weren't the only one that had worked to ensure his youngest daughter's survival. There had been another person, a demon—no, a man—whose intentions Victor had doubted. He could doubt them no longer.

"You were right about Cole," Victor admitted. "I'm sorry about that. And I'm sorry for how I reacted about the baby."

"It's okay, Dad," Phoebe comforted. His reaction to her pregnancy was far from the worst one she'd had. Still, though, there was something she felt—no, she _knew_—she had to say. With a faith and certainty she had never possessed before, Phoebe asserted, "Cole may be a demon, but he loves us. Our baby was made out of love."

The room was silent for a moment, and Piper realized what it really meant: Phoebe had made her choice. Still, though, she had to confirm it. "You've decided what to do about the baby, haven't you?" she asked quietly.

Had she? Phoebe herself was electrified when she realized that, yes, she had. Despite the risks involved and all the hurdles she would have to jump, she was keeping her baby. Once again, Phoebe felt as if the breath had been stolen from her lungs as she realized that she was going to be a mother. Honestly, the thought was a little terrifying.

Piper sighed, but she was smiling. "Just please refrain from telling Prue until _after_ the wedding," she requested.

Phoebe nodded willingly. She didn't want any more drama right now, and telling Prue was bound to be dramatic. Besides, now that a great deal of uncertainty had been cleared out of her life, Phoebe was actually looking forward to the wedding; she didn't want to do anything to spoil it.

"And…" Piper thought about it before she made an offer she never thought she'd make. "If you want, you're free to invite Cole. To the rehearsal dinner _and_ my wedding."

The smile that lit up her sister's face made just about any mishaps her decision caused worth it, Piper decided. Besides, Cole had proven himself today. Whatever reservations they might still have about him, he deserved to be rewarded with at least a little of their trust, and Piper could think of no better way than to invite him to events usually reserved for those one trusted most.

However, they couldn't invite him if he wasn't there to invite. For over an hour, they waited with increasing agitation for their missing members to shimmer in. The minutes passed slowly, and they began to imagine the worst. What if someone had been hurt? Leo couldn't get to them. What if they had been _killed? _Those thoughts were unbearable, and they were made all the worse by the knowledge that if something terrible had happened, Piper, Phoebe, Leo and Victor might never know about it. They'd just be left wondering and waiting for people who would never come home.

Nearly overcome with such dark thoughts, everyone in the living room jumped when the air in front of them was suddenly distorted. The objects of their fears shimmered in, with Cole's arm wrapped casually around Prue as if he hadn't a care in the world.

"Ew!" Prue shoved his arm away from her, making a face. And just like that, the tension in the room was broken.

"What took you so long?" Victor demanded. "We've been worried sick."

"Sorry, we had to tie up a few loose ends," Cole apologized distractedly. They had had to make sure that Bo and Cal were treated, and that Sutter was really dead, before departing quietly in a back alley. Now he had eyes only for Phoebe, and the relief he felt upon seeing her standing strong and unharmed was indescribable. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Phoebe replied, smiling back at him. For a moment, it was just the two of them staring into each other's eyes. The tension that had been keeping them apart before had vanished, leaving only the love that had brought them together in the first place.

Leo, feeling a little uncomfortable in the suddenly intimate atmosphere, interrupted it by asking, "And the time loop?"

"Broken. They will never have to live through that horror again," Prue said firmly.

"So where are they?" Victor wanted to know. As far as he knew, history hadn't suddenly been changed, so something else must have happened.

Prue shrugged. "I don't know. Probably living out their lives in a parallel plane, I guess."

"You don't think about it too much, Victor," Leo told him. "It'd just give you a headache."

Piper's stomach took the opportunity to remind everyone of the time. Suddenly remembering the reason she had wanted everyone to gather here today, Piper asked, "Anyone up for a rehearsal dinner?"

"Absolutely. I'm starving," Phoebe immediately declared. If anything, it was even more important that she eat now that she was eating for two.

Stomachs grumbling, everyone sans Cole moved to head for the kitchen. Believing that he was no longer needed here, Cole turned to leave. Phoebe stopped him. "Wait," she called.

Cole stopped, and look back at her. Phoebe wrung her hands. "There's something I need to tell you," she said finally. They sat down together on the couch. Anxiety curled in Cole's stomach. He knew what this was about. He just didn't know what decision she'd made.

Phoebe took another deep breath. "I've decided to keep the baby," she declared.

For a moment, Cole was speechless. For weeks, he'd worked himself into knots wondering what decision she would make and fearing what it would be. But now it appeared that his fears were no longer necessary; that which he feared would not become a reality. "You are?" he finally croaked.

"Yes," Phoebe nodded. Unable to contain himself, Cole drew her into his arms and kissed her passionately. Phoebe lost herself in the kiss. It had been so long that she'd gone without it. When they finally separated due to lack of oxygen, Phoebe leaned her forehead against his. She reveled in the newfound intimacy between them, and somehow had the presence of mind to add, "When I was dying, I realized I wanted it. I want to be a mother to our baby."

Love, fiercer than anything he had ever felt before, bloomed in Cole's heart. Love, and hope for a future he never before thought he would ever have. "I don't know how much I'll be able to be around," he admitted. Cole wished dearly that he could be there every step of the way to raise their child. But he was an outlaw, now, and sticking around too much would only put his new family in danger. "But I'm definitely going to try," he promised. Yes, he would do his very best to be a good father; Cole just hoped his best would be enough.

"It will be," Phoebe promised him right back, and Cole realized he must have spoken those words aloud.

The moment was once again interrupted by the sound of a rumbling stomach, and they looked at each other, smiling. "Yours or mine?" Phoebe giggled.

"Yours, of course," Cole replied, placing his hand over her still-flat stomach. "You've both had a rough day. You should eat."

"Oh, right," Phoebe suddenly remembered Piper's offer. "You know, you can come, too. To the dinner and the wedding."

Cole raised an eyebrow. "Piper okayed it?" he wanted to know. If he wanted a life with Phoebe, he would become part of the whole family. It would be much harder to do that by crashing their parties.

"Yes, Piper told me," Phoebe told him impatiently, pulling him to his feet. "Come on. Let's eat."

Thus reassured, Cole followed her to join the others at the table. He had to admit that he was touched that they sat him in the place they had set aside for their mother, who was still attending 'in spirit,' as Piper claimed.

The mood at the table was jovial, with the discussion focused mostly on the wedding. No one noticed Prue watching the second happy couple. As she watched them eat and interact, it was all too obvious to Prue that the two of them were rekindling their relationship. She sighed and took a sip of wine. Now that she had spent several hours almost alone in his presence, watching him work to save her sister, Prue realized that Phoebe was right about Cole loving her. She was right that he wanted to change for the better. Prue was not completely convinced that Cole was good, or that the danger he posted to them had completely passed. But she could recognize that she might have been wrong in condemning Phoebe so strongly for the choices she had made in the recent past. Prue just wondered what dangers they would face from the relationship reborn…and what Phoebe and Cole were going to do about the baby.

Author's note: I decided not to have Cole kill the guy with a fireball. After all, he has an added incentive to be good now


	5. Just Harried Pt 1

Chapter 5: Just Harried Part 1

(Author's note: I'm actually not real happy with the way this episode turned out in writing, but I couldn't think of another way to do it. I decided to include it because it was an important episode to the series, even if it wasn't about Phoebe and/or Cole. I will do that with a couple of other episodes (include them because they are important to the series/season.))

One week later…

The mood in the manor was festive, excited, and quiet all at the same time. Prue and Phoebe were in the kitchen, cleaning. Piper was upstairs. Leo was off checking on another of his charges and Cole was presumably taking care of what bounty hunters he could so he would be free tomorrow. The Halliwell sisters, Leo, and their father had just finished a late dinner after a day of preparing for the wedding. The wedding that would be taking place tomorrow.

Everyone could hardly believe it.

"You know," Prue closed the fridge and smirked at Phoebe. "We're almost done. Why don't I take Dad home and you finish up here."

Phoebe made a face; she hated cleaning, but it was Prue's car. She and her dad had gotten into a minor fender bender earlier that week and both cars were in the shop. Ergo, she had no say in who took their father home and who finished up the cleaning.

"Sure," she sighed, knowing she had no choice in the matter.

Prue picked up her keys. "We can summon Grams when I come back and decorate for the wedding. Or do as much as we can at least," she rolled her eyes. Unfortunately, some of the decorative items they needed wouldn't be there until bright and early tomorrow morning, when the deliverymen chose to drop them off. Prue eyed her sister concernedly. Phoebe had been having rough bouts of nausea (whose idea had it been to call it morning sickness when it was round-the-clock sickness?) all day long. "Hey, are you sure you're okay to be doing this?" She'd finish the cleaning and decorating herself if Phoebe really wasn't feeling up to it. Prue hoped she was. She had just felt so _tired_ this week.

Phoebe waved her off. Piper's cooking seemed to have done the trick. "I'm fine now."

Prue meant to say that was good; she just yawned as she and Victor departed.

As soon as they left, Phoebe rushed through the last of the cleaning. There was something she wanted to talk to Grams about, and she needed to do it without Prue there. They only had ten to fifteen minutes before she returned, so Phoebe hurriedly arranged the candles and stood back. Focusing hard on thoughts of her grandmother, she chanted,

_"Hear these words, hear my cry,_

_Spirit from the other side,_

_Come to me, I summon thee,_

_Cross now the great divide."_

From the swirl of bright gold and white lights, Penelope Halliwell appeared and smiled at her granddaughter. "Hello, sweetheart," she greeted warmly. "How are you doing?"

Well, she didn't beat around the bush; Grams never had. Phoebe figured she had to have gotten the news up there and smiled nervously. "Well, I'm a little nervous," she admitted.

Grams nodded. "That's normal of all expectant mothers."

At least Grams wasn't condemning or scolding her outright for getting knocked up by a half-demon; that had been one of Phoebe's many fears. "I'm not an ordinary mother," she reminded her. "I'm having a part-demon baby."

"The baby is also three-quarters witch," Grams sensibly reminded her.

Phoebe felt some of her anxiety begin to lessen ever-so-slightly at her grandmother's reassurance. However, she had to ask, "Why can I shimmer?"

"Well," Grams started, gesturing to a picture of Patty Halliwell that was sitting on the table. "Your mother also displayed some of yours and your sisters' powers when she was expecting you. Some powers that you don't even know you have yet."

Powers they didn't know they had yet? Phoebe was curious, but Grams did not elaborate. So she asked, "Why hasn't the baby displayed any witchy powers?"

"It took awhile for your active powers to develop," Grams explained. "Demon powers develop faster. And your baby has inherited powers from you as well."

"What did my baby inherit from me?" Phoebe wanted to know. If her baby had inherited her visions and levitation, that would explain why she hadn't noticed it.

But Grams just smiled secretively. "You have more than one power," she merely reminded her, "and they didn't all develop at the same time."

Phoebe mulled over her words. Yes, she and Prue had only recently developed their powers of levitation and astral projection. They hadn't known they'd had them before. Maybe there was more…? Phoebe smiled as she figured it out. Her baby had inherited a power she didn't yet have.

Knowing there was no point in asking Grams what that was, Phoebe moved on to her next question, the one that she feared the most: "What about my baby turning evil?"

Grams sighed. "That is a possibility," she admitted, but continued, "but your child has a lot of good in it, too." She smiled once again. "Congratulations, my dear."

Those words were like magic, and Phoebe felt herself glow. It was the first time anyone had told her that; heck, it was the first time anyone besides Cole had been truly happy for her since the pregnancy was discovered.

The moment was interrupted when Prue came home. She stopped short when she saw Grams' ghostly figure standing in front of them. "Hey, you started without me," Prue pouted, sounding mock-offended.

"We haven't, not really," Grams assured her.

"While I have a lot of energy now, I want to be able to get up in the morning so I started a little earlier," Phoebe fibbed. It was as good an excuse as any.

Tired as she was, Prue didn't question it. Instead, they merely began setting up the arch. Grams gave them a few laughs by asking if it was really the biggest arch they could find and reminded them that if "love is the quest, then marriage is the conquest." Apparently, weddings were not supposed to be romantic, at least not in her book. Prue flippantly remarked that one could always tell Grams' age by the number of rings on her fingers. Grams just wagged one of said fingers at her.

"Alright, wedding arch is done," Prue glanced at her never-ending to-do list. "The next thing on the to-do list is…" she yawned.

Phoebe watched her in concern. Prue had been tired, abnormally so, all week and this was really not the best time for it. So she finished, "…Sleep. You've been yawning all day."

"Try all week," Prue complained. "It's this recurring dream I keep having, it's keeping me awake."

Phoebe frowned. "Really? What's in the dream?"

"Well…" Prue thought back to her most recent dream. "There was this biker guy and he's kinda cute and kinda dangerous…" Unconsciously, she smiled.

"Sounds kinda yummy," Phoebe remarked.

Piper walked in at that moment, and was momentarily spellbound by the sight before her. The arch and the altar and Grams…wow.

"Piper, sweetie!" Grams greeted her. "What do you think?"

Piper stared at the magnificent sight before her. "It's-it's beautiful," she murmured.

"Yeah, and the best part is, it's finally happening," Phoebe put in.

"Flowers…and bows…and Grams…" Piper sighed, still looking around. "The only thing missing is…"

"Mom," Prue finished quietly. She'd been thinking about that, too.

The collective mood in the room fell momentarily. Piper started, "Grams, are you sure you can't do…?"

Grams shook her head. "I'm only here because you need a high priestess. They want me back by the witching hour tomorrow."

The sisters' shoulders sagged. It had been worth a try, at least. Phoebe held up the picture that had been sitting behind her. Quietly, she said, "I thought this could help."

It would, just…not enough.

Prue watched Piper closely. "You okay?"

Piper shook herself out of her thoughts. "Yeah, I just, I can't believe how close I came to sabotaging my own wedding."

Sabotaging the wedding? Phoebe rocked back in surprise. "What do you mean?"

"Well, with the demons and the false starts and _them,_" Piper nodded accusingly up at the ceiling, gesturing to the heavens where the Elders resided. She admitted, "I told myself if one more thing went wrong then it just maybe wasn't meant to be."

"Oh, darling, there's no need to think that way. I mean, you made it," Grams hastened to reassure her. Piper smiled.

"Yeah, and I will personally butt-kick any demon who tries to ruin it for you," Prue added. Her statement would have had more of an impact if she hadn't punctuated it with yet another yawn.

"Not if you're asleep, you won't." Phoebe shook her head. It was late, and they had a big day tomorrow. "Come on, I'm tucking you in."

It was a testament to how tired Prue really was that she didn't even try to argue with her.

XXX

On the morning of February 22, 2001, it was Phoebe Halliwell who woke up the earliest for a change. For a moment, she just laid there in her bed, basking in the knowledge of what today was. Even better, she did not feel any morning sickness whatsoever beyond some mild queasiness that would quickly be taken care of with breakfast. With that thought in mind, Phoebe fairly leapt out of bed and, after taking care of business in the bathroom, rushed downstairs to the kitchen.

Being that she was the only one up, the house was totally and completely quiet. Phoebe knew she wasn't the best cook in the world, but she was more than capable of making breakfast-in-bed for her soon-to-be wed sister. Phoebe giggled at her unspoken rhyme. Her happiness only increased she began to gather the necessary ingredients. For once, Phoebe did not feel weighted down by responsibilities as this was a positively joyful day. She had made a decision about her baby and talked to Grams about it; even the mild morning sickness couldn't get her down. Life seemed a lot better with less uncertainty. Phoebe was only a tiny bit sad because their mother wasn't there to share this day with them.

Phoebe shoved the thought aside. Once breakfast was done (and she had eaten her share of it), she carefully arranged Piper's share on a tray and brought it up the stairs to her sister. If Piper wasn't up yet, well, she would just have to take care of that. They had a lot to do today, and no time to waste.

As luck would have it, Piper was already up and giggling when Phoebe walked into the room. "Was that just giggling I heard?" the youngest Halliwell sister demanded as she walked in with the tray.

Piper grinned at her impishly, looking totally unlike her normally-serious self. She retorted, "Yes, I am guilty of giggling and I am guilty of being happier than any previous romance in my life!"

Well, of course she was! "Piper, it's your wedding day!" Phoebe exclaimed, hardly able to believe it herself.

Shyly, but smugly, Piper said, "I know."

Phoebe lunged at the bed. "Here comes a bridesmaid!" she yelled as she pounced. The two of them threw petals in the air, giggling and laughing like preschoolers on a playground.

Prue came in, and they immediately showered her with petals. "Prue, come play!"

"Hey," Prue protested, smiling, as she pulled petals out of her hair. She sat down on the bed and Phoebe noticed the exhausted look on her face.

"Uh-oh, another bad dream?" she guessed.

Prue nodded. "Yeah, I was still in that biker bar but this time I was attacked by a big galloot," she explained forgetting her audience.

Piper's heart stopped. "A galloot? What is that?" she demanded, fearful that all her bridal dreams were about to come crashing down. "You fought a demon in your sleep? If I'm gonna have to vanquish a demon in my wedding dress, just tell me, because if so, then—" Piper began to rant, her mood plummeting.

Prue stopped her in her tracks. "Ay!" she exclaimed to get her attention. "Alright, he was not a demon, he was just a big rude guy."

"And it was just in her dream," Phoebe added.

"Yeah, and the only thing I need to vanquish him is a potion called coffee," Prue finished. The door bell rang. "That must be the flowers. Um, okay, you just relax, no worrying."

Phoebe leapt off the bed. "And I will have a hot bubble bath waiting for you!" she promised. _'Nothing like a hot bath to prepare for one of the most important days in your life,'_ she thought as she ran into the bathroom. Prue called for her, asking for help in getting the wedding set up, and Phoebe eagerly obliged as soon as the bath was full. She was pleased to help; nothing could have made her happier than the fact that for once, they were going to have an awesome, normal (well, semi-normal because of Grams and the tiny size of the event) experience of a wedding. Sometimes it seemed like they would never get there because of the constant danger. Now Piper was getting married and Phoebe herself was having a baby with the man she loved. She knew there were still obstacles in their way like demons and bounty hunters and the Source (and telling Prue), but in her current cheerful mood, Phoebe felt like they could deal with all that and more. Right now, though, they just needed to focus on the present.

So Phoebe just brushed away her inexplicable anxiety as Prue smothered another yawn and Piper got ready to chase away her remaining worries with the promised bubble bath.

XXX

Several hours later, the oldest and the youngest Halliwell sisters had just about finished with the mountain of tasks that needed to be completed this day. Phoebe came down into the kitchen after rifling through the attic, prize in hand. She set it down on the table where Prue was scratching one thing after another off her to-do list.

"Check out what I found in the attic," Phoebe exulted.

Prue barely even glanced at it. "I hope it's something old 'cause we already have new, borrowed, and blue covered."

"Is Melinda Warren's blessing cup old enough?" Phoebe asked pointedly, fingering the ancient item in question.

Prue grinned. "That is very cool."

"Yeah, what could be better than to give Piper the actual cup that our favorite ancestor drank from at her wedding," Phoebe remarked. This cup had, in a way, witnessed the birth of their bloodline. It didn't even look three hundred years old. It would always hold a special place in their hearts.

Prue scanned her list, satisfied. "Alright, now I can check that off. Now all I need is help moving the buffet table."

Phoebe bit her lip. She wasn't sure how receptive Prue would be to her next suggestion, but… "Maybe we should wait until Cole gets here. He should be here any minute."

Prue turned around and stared at her. "You're _kidding, _right?"

"No, you knew he was coming to the wedding," Phoebe countered; she couldn't help being a little stung by Prue's tone.

"Yeah, to the _wedding,_ Phoebe," Prue emphasized, suddenly irritated. The day had been going so well, too. "But the moments leading up to it belong to the family." Softening her tone just a little, Prue said, "And I'm sorry, okay, but Cole is not family."

Okay, that hurt. Unconsciously, Phoebe's hand moved towards her stomach. Cole was definitely part of her family, whether Prue liked it or not. She was about to say so before she remembered that she hadn't told Prue her decision yet. So Phoebe stayed silent.

The silence lasted all of half a second. Piper screamed, and her two sisters ran out of the kitchen, afraid of what they might find. They didn't have to be. Leo had arrived, and he was holding something long and white draped over his arm.

"It is bad luck to see the bride's dress before the wedding," Piper was scolding him as she hid behind the decorations on the stairwell.

"But you're not in your dress," Leo impishly reminded her.

Piper frowned. That was true. "The same rule applies to the bride's…curlers." She glared. "Go away." Piper ran back up the stairs.

After that, there was a small to-do over Leo's chosen wear for the day. He had brought his formal Whitelighter wear; Prue and Phoebe had rented him a tux. And it was the tux that the Whitelighter would be wearing; at least that aspect of a traditional wedding would remain.

"Anybody home?"

"Daddy!" Phoebe ran to give her father a hug as he came through the door.

"Hi, baby," Victor greeted his daughter delightedly. His greeting to Leo was decidedly less friendly, "Leo." The two men nodded civilly to each other, and Phoebe and Prue shivered as they felt the temperature in the room drop several degrees.

Prue cleared her throat awkwardly. "Well, I know that you have a lot of joy and laughter to share so I'll just take you down…" Without warning, the world tilted sideways as Prue was overcome by a dizzy spell. "Whoa."

"What's the matter?" Victor asked anxiously, his animosity towards Leo momentarily forgotten.

Prue quickly sat down on the stairs so she wouldn't fall down. "Ah, just, uh, a dizzy spell," she replied faintly, holding her head in her hands. "I've been getting them ever since those dreams began."

Leo tensed. "What dreams?"

"Oh, you know, those dreams," Prue started to explain and then she remembered. Piper's warning. So she lied, "Uh, you know it's nothing."

Phoebe, too, remembered Piper's words from the night before. For that reason alone, she went along with it. "Yeah, certainly nothing to worry about," she fibbed. "Okay, you two, follow me." To Prue, Phoebe ordered, "You just sit there and relax. I'll be right back." Prue nodded, unable to do anything else. Phoebe led the men to the basement. As they descended the stairs, she made sure to call down to them, "Get dressed and no fighting."

From the looks the two gave each other, Phoebe wouldn't bank on it. She sighed, leaving them to their own devices and hurried back to Prue, who was still sitting on the stairs. Apparently these bad dreams were turning out to be something more.

"Prue, okay, we've got everyone convinced that we have things under control," Phoebe announced, sitting down beside her big sister. "Now you have to convince me."

Prue shook her head weakly. "I can't do that."

Phoebe's heart sank. "Oh, no. What are you feeling?"

"Tired all the time," Prue moaned as a wave of exhaustion nearly overwhelmed her. "I mean, when I fall asleep, my dreams are so real, they don't allow me any rest. It's like I'm awake 24 hours a day."

Phoebe couldn't even begin to imagine how that felt. She smoothed Prue's hair back out of her eyes. "Is the dream sorcerer back?"

"I don't think so, but I'm not ruling anything out," Prue said grimly.

"Well, remember what Piper said. If one more thing goes wrong she was gonna call off this wedding," Phoebe warned. They had to be sure something was really wrong before they rang the warning bell.

"No, we can't let that happen," Prue decided. She just didn't know what to do.

But Phoebe did, at least temporarily. "Why don't you let me handle this almighty to-do list," she pried the list from her sister's grasp. "And you go upstairs and get some rest. _Don't sleep,_" she warned, "just rest."

"Okay," Prue whispered.

Phoebe watched her make her way up the stairs. "You're relinquishing control to your little sister," she muttered in shock. "You must really be tired."

As Phoebe tackled the rest of the chores that needed to be done before the ceremony, her worry only grew. Prue was upstairs, suffering from God knows what. And she had no idea where Cole was; he was supposed to have been here by now. Had he been captured by bounty hunters? Hurt? Killed? Phoebe's head spun with the possibilities.

Once she had finished, Phoebe made her way back upstairs. The wedding was in an hour, and they had yet to get themselves ready. Her heart fell when she peeked into Prue's room and realized the older girl was asleep. Phoebe crossed the room soundlessly and gently shook her shoulder.

"Prue," she called softly. There was no response. Phoebe called her name louder. Still no response. Now even more worried than she had been before, Phoebe shook her sister roughly. Prue just moaned. She did not wake up, and Phoebe was terrified. Why wouldn't Prue wake up?

Several more shakes and shouts later, Prue still would not wake up. Phoebe was about to resort to slapping her, consequences be damned, when Prue's eyes abruptly flew open. Phoebe nearly wept in relief, but that relief was short-lived when she noticed the look in her sister's eyes. Prue was terrified. Without bothering to answer her sister's queries, Prue sat up and stared at her wrists.

"Oh no," she whispered.

And just like that, Phoebe knew something supernatural was going on. Still feeling quite out of sorts, Prue finally explained her dream. She explained that it felt like it wouldn't release her—Phoebe knew exactly what that felt like. Her visions tried to pull her in every time, and that only served to worry her more, not less. They wondered if someone was trying to pull them, or at least Prue, into an alternate dream world.

"Well, hopefully that person will be in the Book of Shadows, okay," Phoebe consoled her, leading her out of the room. "Come on."

They had barely taken two steps into the hall when another thought occurred to her. "Wait, should we tell Piper?" Phoebe hedged. They both remembered Piper's words from the night before, but the Power of Three might be necessary.

"No, I won't let this be the one thing that goes wrong today," Prue decided without hesitating. "I'll be okay as long as I stay awake, right? For Piper?"

"For Piper."

Of course, getting to the attic was not that easy. Prue and Phoebe were only feet from the stairs that led up to it when Piper emerged from her room. One look at her sisters told Piper all she needed to know. "Hold it right there. What's wrong?" she demanded.

Prue and Phoebe shared a frantic glance with each other. "Boy bands," Phoebe replied unthinkingly, "there's just too many of them, don't you think?"

Wow, that sounded weak even to her ears. _'Way to go, Phoebe,'_ Phoebe congratulated herself sarcastically.

Piper didn't buy it. "No. What's wrong with you two?"

"Nothing's wrong," Prue lied.

Unfortunately, Piper was not convinced. "I can see it in your faces. We've been demon-hunting for three years now; you're going to the attic, aren't you?"

A lightbulb went on in Phoebe's head. There was a way out of this. "Yes…" she sighed.

Prue elbowed her roughly. "Phoebe!"

Piper threw her hands up in the air. Of course she couldn't have an uneventful wedding day, why had she ever thought otherwise? "I knew it."

Prue stared at Phoebe like she had lost her mind. Phoebe shrugged. "What, Prue, she's on to us," she turned and faced Piper, schooling her expression into one of defeat. "Yes, Piper, we were heading to the attic," Phoebe admitted. "To find something old, something new…"

Phoebe looked at Prue meaningfully, and Prue quickly caught on. She finished, "Uh, something, something borrowed, something blue."

"Yes."

"Right." Prue tried to make herself sound sheepish. "We were gonna surprise you, but now you caught us." Inwardly, she cheered in relief. Piper had bought it. Prue continued, "I told you, you have nothing to worry about today, alright? It's going to be a demon-free day."

The timing of her statement was perfect. Cole Turner shimmered in beside Phoebe, and Phoebe smiled in relief. He was okay. He was even holding a wedding gift, much to her surprise.

"Hey!" Prue protested.

Cole looked at the assembled sisters. Apparently, he had shimmered into an awkward moment. Well, it wasn't as though awkward moments had ever bothered him before. As he always did, Cole took in the situation around him. Piper looked relieved, for some unexplained reason. But Prue and Phoebe did not; well, Phoebe did, but Cole could see the traces of worry in her face. In both of their faces. Something was going on, and they didn't want Piper to know about it. He decided to play along.

"Sorry I'm late," he apologized, although Cole didn't think he was, given their states of relative undress.

Piper gave Prue a look. "You were saying?"

"Near miss with a Zotar," Cole explained and Phoebe winced. The last thing that Piper needed was a reminder that an _uninvited_ demon could crash her wedding at any time. At least he noticed her irritation and gave her a quick peck on the lips. Phoebe smiled again. "Almost spotted me. Oh, don't worry, I lost him. I think," he almost reassured her. Well, they had to give him points for trying.

XXX

With Cole's help, Phoebe finished the last chore on the to-do list: moving the buffet table into its assigned wedding spot. As they worked, she couldn't help but stare. Cole was wearing a tux, and he looked damn good in it. Phoebe didn't even care where he'd gotten it.

Cole looked up and smirked. "Like what you see?" He cocked an eyebrow suggestively.

Phoebe blushed and looked away. "No time," she muttered. But, oh yes, she did like what she saw. She like it a whole lot.

Cole nodded, smiling a little to himself. Then he abruptly changed the subject. "So what's wrong with Prue?"

Phoebe looked back at him again, startled. "How did you know?"

Cole just looked at her. _'He's a one-hundred-and-sixteen-year-old half-demon with super senses,' _Phoebe belatedly remembered, _'So he's seen just about everything. Right.'_

"Prue's been having bad dreams…" Phoebe explained the whole situation—what she knew of it, anyway—to Cole and looked at him expectantly. "Have you heard of anything like that?"

"I've heard of dream dimensions," Cole said matter-of-factly. "But not like how you're describing it. It could be a parallel world, though. I don't know." Phoebe deflated a little. So he didn't know. Drat.

"Maybe it's in the Book of Shadows," she reminded herself hopefully. To Cole, she said, "I'm gonna go check on Prue. Finish up here, will you?"

Cole nodded his assent and went back to repositioning the table. Phoebe had just turned the corner to go up to the attic when Prue met her at the base of the stairs. "Hey, did you find anything in the Book about your dreams?"

"Nothing," Prue replied tiredly.

Phoebe deflated once again. "What are we gonna do?" She checked her watch. "The wedding's in a half an hour."

Prue took a deep breath, gathering her strength, which was once again beginning to wane. "Get ready, get set, get through it for Piper," she stated.

"For Piper," Phoebe confirmed. The two sisters split into their separate rooms to get dressed. It was only when she slipped into her beautiful, watermelon-colored floor-length dress that Phoebe remembered the zipper. _'I should have asked for help,'_ she thought irritatedly as she struggled with the offending object.

"Let me," a soft voice soothed from behind her.

Phoebe was momentarily startled, and then relaxed as she felt Cole's hot, gentle hands work their way up her back. Being that he was a half-demon with fiery capabilities, Cole's body temperature was several degrees higher than that of a normal human. And, being that it was February in San Francisco, Phoebe loved it.

For a moment, the two lovers forgot about their worldly worries and basked in each other's presence. Both wished they had just a little bit more time before the wedding for 'other' activities. Phoebe looked down at her stomach and realized that, while it was still flat, she wouldn't be able to fit in this kind of dress much longer. The thought warmed her from the inside.

Cole, meanwhile, had finished zipping, but he didn't move away from his spot behind her. He wrapped his arms around her still-small middle, hands resting right over where he knew their baby was developing. "Have you told your sisters yet?" he asked softly.

Phoebe started to shake her head, and then realized that wasn't exactly true. "Everyone but Prue knows, I think," she replied just as softly. "Please don't tell her yet. Not until after the wedding, at least. We've got enough going on right now."

Cole wasn't exactly thrilled about it, but he respected Phoebe's judgment about her sisters. Knowing this was all the time they could have today, he backed off. Phoebe gave him another quick peck on the lips (wishing it could be longer) before she darted out to help her sisters. She and Prue went back to pretending that everything was fine. They laughed like sisters should as they helped each other and Piper with dressing and hair and make-up.

"Guys, can I have a little alone time?" Piper requested once they had finished with her veil. Prue and Phoebe nodded; every bride needed a little time to herself once everything was set and ready. Prue went out to wait in the hall while Phoebe went down to check on the men. Leo and Victor seemed to be getting along fairly well, to her astonishment; they must have come to some kind of understanding after she had banished them down to the basement. Darryl, unfortunately, still hadn't shown up and she wondered just where he was; it wasn't like him to be late. Phoebe left a message on his cell phone, praying that he would show up in the next ten minutes. If he didn't…oh well.

Phoebe made her way back upstairs and frowned when she heard voices coming from Piper's room. Sharing a concerned look, she and Prue walked in.

What they saw left them breathless.

Patricia Halliwell, the mother who had been dead for almost twenty-three years, smiled when her youngest and oldest daughters entered the room and stopped short at the sight of her.

"Mum," Phoebe spoke softly, shocked beyond the use of any other word but one. She had seen her mother before, of course; during her time travels and in that home movie her father had left for them three years earlier. But it was the first time she had seen her, alive, in this time period. Grams had said she couldn't do it. So how…?

"It's true," Piper nodded tearfully, "she's real. They sent her to us for today."

There was only one 'they' Piper could be talking about. Despite all her previous ill thoughts she had directed towards the Elders, Phoebe now found herself thanking them for this one day she would get to spend with her mother.

Patty looked at Prue, her eldest daughter, first. "Oh Prue," she sighed, "it's been so hard on you, unfair."

"Yeah…" Prue caught herself nodding. "No, it doesn't matter. I just wanted to make you proud," she choked out.

"You protected this family better than I could. I'm so proud of you," Patty reassured her, as they embraced for the first time in over two decades.

Phoebe stared at them, feeling irrationally hurt and left out. Although she knew, intellectually, that it wasn't true, she couldn't help but think that maybe her mother loved her less than her two older sisters. After all, they had never gotten to know each other the way Patty had with her older daughters.

Patty noticed her daughter's dejection and turned to her next. Her youngest daughter, Phoebe, the one she had never truly had the chance to know. And now, the same toddler she had left behind all those years ago would be the first to continue the Warren line with her own child in a few short months.

"And you, my baby, you feel it all, don't you?" Patty murmured tenderly. Phoebe's breath caught once again. Her mother did love her, she did, as everyone had always said she did. "I was never there to comfort you. I died before you even knew me."

"Some nights I just wanted you to hold me," Phoebe whispered thickly. Her eyes prickled with unshed tears.

Patty stepped up closer, about to do so now. "Your road's been the longest, Phoebe. But I was never worried about you." Phoebe looked at her, confused. Her mother explained, "You know why? Because I had a premonition the day you were born."

"You did?" Phoebe breathed.

"What did you see?" Piper questioned, still trying to hold back her own tears.

"Oh, I saw this," Patty smiled beatifically as she gestured to the scene before her. "I saw this moment, right now, my three daughters standing before me as beautiful young women and I knew that everything would be okay."

Phoebe choked, overcome with emotion. "What did you see next?"

Their mother opened her arms wide. "I held you," she answered, and all three of her daughters willingly stepped into the embrace. For a long moment, they just stood there, reveling in this contact and the fact that they would all be a complete family again, even if it was just for today.

Eventually, though, they had to pull apart. It was Prue, ever the responsible one, who reminded them of why they were all here. "We still have a wedding today. Piper, are you ready?"

Piper nodded, gathering herself and dabbing away at the few tears that had escaped her control. "I'm ready."

They gave her a moment longer to collect herself, and Prue and Phoebe made their way downstairs. Everyone else was already in place, with Grams standing (or floating?) behind the altar, and Leo and Victor in front of it. Cole stood off to the side, nearer to the entryway. He wasn't _quite_ part of the family, yet, and it showed.

"Places, places, everyone!" Grams called. Phoebe made sure she was standing in the correct spot. As she looked around, she couldn't help thinking that everything felt more than a little surreal. This day wasn't going as perfectly as she would have liked, but she wanted this moment to be just that.

Naturally, said moment was interrupted by the ringing of the doorbell. "Don't answer that," Prue muttered.

"Can somebody answer that?" Piper called from upstairs.

"Oooh!" Prue hissed as she and Phoebe went to follow their sister's wishes. As it turned out, Darryl Morris was standing on the other side of the door. And he didn't look happy. "Hey, you're late. Where were you?"

"Out saving your ass," Darryl informed her tersely. Phoebe's jaw dropped as he revealed that not only did the police have Prue's picture, but that she was wanted for murder.

Horrified, Phoebe exclaimed, "Oh my God, that was your dream!"

"They don't have your name yet but it's only a matter of time," the inspector warned. He hated to bring such awful news on what was supposed to be a joyful day, but he didn't have a choice.

From the other room, Grams called, "Girls!"

Prue thought fast. "Alright, let's just stay cool and we'll get downtown and straighten this out later. But we have to get through the wedding first, okay? For Piper."

"For Piper." Phoebe nodded. They looked at Darryl, who looked back at them in confusion. "You're supposed to say, 'for Piper,'" she explained.

Darryl agreed, reluctantly. "Alright, but it better be a quick wedding."

Although the other occupants of the manor didn't feel it, Phoebe thought the atmosphere in the room was not nearly as light as it had been when she walked back to her place. Cole saw the consternation in her face and the tension in her frame, but said nothing. Now wasn't the time for it.

The atmosphere lightened up a little with Victor's consternation over finding out that his ex-wife had temporarily come back from the dead. It lightened up considerably when the music started and Piper came down. For a moment, all Phoebe could do was stare at her sister in all her bridal glory. With the veil, the hair, the make-up, the jewelry, the dress, even the shoes…from head to toe, Piper looked perfect. Despite her anxiety, Phoebe smiled as Victor took his daughter's arm and led her to the altar.

"We did it," she whispered. "It's really happening."

She spoke too soon. Not two seconds after she spoke those words, did a horrendous crash echo from the entryway. The entire wedding party spun around and gasped as a _man on a motorcycle rode into the room_. Flowers, table pieces and glassware flew in every which direction; some smashed on the ground while others went flying into the air. The man stopped and called, "Prue!"

Prue gasped, "Oh, oh, oh no." Before Phoebe could catch her, she fainted dead away on the ground. Even more shocking, her astral self, dressed far more casually than her real self appeared right next to her fallen form and looked at the man as if he was her savior. "TJ!" she exclaimed, sounding anything but furious as she ran over to him. "You came!"

"Prue?" Shocked as she was, Phoebe was helpless to stop her and could only watch as her big sister climbed on the bike with her mystery man.

"Had to beat the cops," TJ explained—to Prue, not them. "I won't let them take you."

"Prue, what the hell is going on?" Piper demanded, eyes wide with fear and disbelief.

"Prue, you get your astral ass back here!" Phoebe screamed. It had no effect. Once again, she could only watch in horror as the bike roared to life and began a disastrous journey out of the manor. Up against several hundred pounds of metal and two determined riders, the cake table didn't stand a chance. Knocked off balance, it toppled to the ground, and the white wedding cake split into white, messy pieces as it splattered on the hardwood floor.

For a moment, all was silent. And then Piper began to fall apart. "Oh," she moaned, surveying the destroyed room and her destroyed wedding. "Oh…oh…oh…_oh._"

"Honey…" Phoebe started, unsure of what else to say.

Abruptly, Piper's mood changed from devastated to pissed off. "Alright," she hissed, ripping off the suddenly-offensive veil. "That's it! The wedding is _off._"

_No!_ The wedding couldn't be off, not with all the blood, sweat and tears they'd put into it! Phoebe took a step towards her sister, accidentally stepping on the dress. It ripped.

_"Phoebe!"_

"Sorry, sorry," Phoebe hastily apologized. Piper stormed away, and Phoebe went after her, desperate to stop her before she did something they'd all regret. "Piper, Piper, wait, think about this."

Piper ignored her, and roughly shrugged into a light pink cardigan. Phoebe kept trying anyway. "Piper, Piper you cannot just leave."

Piper spun to face her, the distress clear on her face and in her voice. "Yes, I can. A demon, I could have handled, but my big sister _ruining_ my wedding, I cannot handle that!" she shrieked.

Phoebe was not quite panicking, but she was very close. "Okay, just listen to me for a second. All we have to do is find a way…" Find a way? What was she saying? Why should someone have to 'find a way' on today of all days? Phoebe glanced at Cole, and wondered, _'Is that what we're doing with our baby?'_

"No, no I don't want to 'find a way' to get married on my wedding day," Piper cried. "It's too hard, there must be a reason."

"Piper…" Leo tried.

It was to no avail. "Leo, I'm sorry, but this is just the final straw," Piper said, both decisively and defeatedly. A wounded look crossed Leo's face. "It's just not meant to be."

So, in the end, despite all their promises that everything would be okay, all Phoebe could do was watch as her devastated sister walked out of the house on the ruin of a day that was supposed to be her wedding day. Worse yet, she had no idea how to fix it.


	6. Just Harried Pt 2

Chapter 6: Just Harried Part 2

It was Victor who took the initiative of lifting Prue off the floor and laying her on the couch in the living room. Everyone else gathered around as Phoebe tried once again to wake her sister. Patty stopped her.

"Honey, you won't get her back that way," she told her gently. Patty explained, "A part of Prue wanted to escape and it used her astral self to do it."

That was not reassuring; they would not be able to get Prue back if part of her didn't want to come back. Phoebe sourly thought that she would like to escape right now, too, but as she was the only sister who was currently acting sanely, she didn't have that option. Phoebe only felt worse when Grams, too, disappeared, after saying that she could only be there to conduct the ceremony.

"Maybe Piper's right," Victor commented tiredly. "Maybe the wedding just wasn't meant to be."

"Victor," Patty admonished.

Victor looked at her, no animosity in his gaze. "All I'm saying is that maybe the Gods are trying to spare them the pain that we went through." Phoebe cringed. She thought about all the obstacles she and Cole would have to face and right now, the outcome didn't seem too promising.

Phoebe's hopes rose, however, when Leo shook his head. "No. All I need is what's inside of me to know that Piper and I are meant to be together. What happened here today…"

"Piper and Leo's love has touched us all," Phoebe chimed in, rising to her feet from her crouched position. She looked at Cole, and he looked back at her. "We have to fix this."

Darryl's pager beeped. He looked at it, and sighed. "I gotta go fend of the posse."

Victor frowned. "What posse?"

Darryl looked at them, hating what he was going to have to say. "Prue's wanted for murder," he announced, and everyone sans Phoebe drew back in shock. "I'll stay in touch by cell phone."

He left. Patty was the first to find her voice. "Murder?" she exclaimed.

Leo looked at Phoebe. Of all of them, she was the only one who didn't seem in the least bit surprised by the inspector's announcement. He glared at her. "You knew about this?"

"I just found out when Morris told Prue," Phoebe defended herself. That had been, oh, five minutes ago. "But it's obviously a mistake, I mean, Prue wouldn't murder anybody?"

Cole crossed his arms across his chest. "You sure?" he asked meaningfully. "I mean, Prue's astral form seems to have taken a life of its own. How did you know she didn't do it?"

"Because I know her," Phoebe replied quietly. But Cole's reasoning unsettled her. The Prue she'd seen a few minutes had _not_ acted like the Prue she'd known her whole life. "At least, I think I do." As much as she wished otherwise, she and Cole both knew that she couldn't say for sure that Prue didn't do it.

Leo could stand it no longer. They couldn't afford to sit around any longer, not with Prue's freedom and his and Piper's relationship on the line. "Alright, alright, you guys find Piper, bring her back here somehow," he ordered, pointing to Victor and Patty. They nodded, and he continued, "Phoebe, Book of Shadows, see if there's a spell to bring astral Prue back. Cole," Leo turned to face the half-demon, unable to believe what he was about to say. In the mood he was in, the Elders and their rules (particularly the one about working with demons) could go to hell. "You and me are gonna do a little investigating of our own."

Cole raised an eyebrow. He never thought he'd see the day when the Whitelighter would _demand _he work with him. Then again, the circumstances were somewhat extreme. If their positions were reversed, Cole would probably do the same thing. And Leo was about to become Phoebe's family, which meant he was about to become Cole's, as strange as that sounded. Cole nodded his assent.

Leo clapped his hands together. "Alright, come on you guys, we've got a wedding to save."

Everyone dispersed to carry out their assignments. Patty and Victor left to search out Piper, who was probably at the club. Phoebe ran upstairs to the Book, praying she could find a spell that would work to bring what was essentially a solid spirit back to them. Leo had only to put in a quick call to Darryl to find out which bar the murder had occurred at. Then he looked back at Cole. He still couldn't believe he had actually asked (ordered) their former enemy to work with him, but desperate times called for desperate measures. Besides…Leo was marrying Cole's lover's sister, and said lover was having Cole's baby. They were practically family.

"Ready?"

"Ready."

Leo orbed and Cole shimmered and together, the two of them left the Manor. They rematerialized outside the bar's bathroom by a payphone. Cole looked around. Thankfully, no one had witnessed their magical arrival, so they were free to investigate unmolested…for now. He glanced at the bar. Beer, pool tables, scantily-clad women, and San Francisco's toughest bikers… "Interesting place to dream about."

"Especially for Prue." Leo also looked around in distaste.

Hanging out by the bathrooms would do them no good, so they peeled themselves away from the wall and began to walk around. "Based on what Morris said, someone must have knifed the victim after Astral Prue went away," he decided, scanning the rough-and-tumble crowd.

Leo was scanning the crowd, too, and he wasn't liking what he was seeing. "By the looks of this crowd, it could be anybody."

"No, not anybody," Cole corrected, shaking his head. He knew exactly what he was looking for, even if the Whitelighter didn't. Really, it was quite thrilling to be back on the hunt again. He stretched out his demonic senses and explained, "Very few humans have the heart of a true killer. One who kills without prejudice."

Leo looked at him. "How do you know?" he asked, challengingly. Cole was trying so hard to be good, so it would be interesting to hear how he answered the question.

Cole shrugged. Murder was nothing new to him, and it certainly didn't bother him the way it did the Whitelighter. "I can always sense it. Before I suppressed my demonic self for Phoebe, I can sense how human killers form inside." There. Several feet in front of him, sitting at the bar. Cole zeroed in on his target. Aside from being a little taller, this man did not stand out from the rest of the grungy crowd around him—to other humans, anyway. But Cole was not fully human, and this man felt different to him. Cole sniffed the air lightly. While nowhere near as strong as it was in his demonic form, his sense of smell was still superior to a human's or a Whitelighter's. And it was offering him a telling clue in the form of the distinctive metallic odor that was wafting from the man's body. "He's here."

"The murderer?" Leo tensed, wanting dearly to spring into action. "You sure?"

"That he's our killer, no," Cole replied honestly, not taking his eyes off his prey. "But he's got fresh blood on his hands. Go update Morris."

XXX

Back at the manor, Phoebe gave a cry of triumph as she finally located the spell she'd been looking for. The spell was a simple one, made for calling a lost witch regardless of what form she was in. Deciding she wanted to have the upcoming _discussion_ in a relatively comfortable spot, Phoebe went to the kitchen, gathered the items she would need, and went back to the living room. She mixed the ingredients, lit the candles, took a deep breath, and then she began to chant:

"_Power of the witches rise, course unseen across the skies,_

_Come to us who call you near, come to us and settle here,_

_Blood to blood, I summon thee,_

_Blood to blood, return to me."_

The result was almost instantaneous. Prue materialized in front of her, arms held in front of her in a circle, as if she'd been clinging to something to keep from being moved. "No!" she was shouting, eyes still squeezed shut in defiance of her new surroundings. "I will not let you take me!"

Well, that was too bad. Prue opened her eyes as Phoebe loudly slammed the book shut. Phoebe sat back. "Nice spell, huh?" she asked pointedly.

"How _dare_ you?" Prue hissed.

"_How_ dare _you?_" Phoebe tossed right back at her. Accusingly, she said, "You destroyed Piper's wedding, along with Piper. Now, Prue, I don't know what's going on with you but you have got to pull yourself together."

Prue glared at her, not a hint of remorse in her expression. Instead, she snarled, "I am outta here," and began to stride towards the door. Phoebe wasn't about to let her get that far, and grabbed her shoulder to halt her passage. But the level of aggression Prue displayed to her was astounding. Instead of shrugging the hand off, Prue grabbed it, and Phoebe let out a cry of surprise when Prue forcefully flipped her onto the ground and held her by the throat.

"You cannot stop me, alright? I'm never going back, I'm not going…" Prue didn't get a chance to finish her sentence as Phoebe, now angry, abruptly retaliated in kind. Her anger gave her strength, and Phoebe grabbed her sister's arm and swung (more like flung) her onto the couch. Undaunted, Prue continued her ranting.

"Alright, you know what I am sick of this," Prue cried. She pointed to her unconscious body that was on the couch beside her. "_She _is all about duty and obligation. Well, _not _me. Alright, I want to be free, I wanna find love, I wanna have a _life_."

As important as they were, they were not, in Phoebe's opinion, important enough to ruin their sister's wedding. Ergo, Phoebe was not impressed. "Well, you _have_ responsibilities, Prue, whether you like it or not."

"Don't talk to me about being responsible, Phoebe." Prue's scorn was palpable. "You were not being very responsible when you went and fell in love with and got pregnant by a demon."

Phoebe looked up at the heavens, praying they would send a little help and patience her way. "Please, you have got to let this whole Cole thing go, okay?" she exclaimed, exasperated. "You can't stay mad at me forever!"

But Prue's next words shocked her. Instead of pouncing on her, Prue merely looked at her. "I'm not at you Phoebe. Alright, I never was." Prue looked back at her body. "_She_ was. _I_ was rooting for you."

Phoebe rocked back on her heels, stunned. Prue _wasn't_ mad at her about that? Now suspicious, Phoebe thought back over everything her sister had said in the last few minutes. "Okay, now you're scaring me," she murmured.

Prue continued, "You risked everything for love, just like Piper and Leo. I _dream_ of having that kind of freedom, but instead, I get stuck watching my _sisters_ live my dream."

Now that she had an idea of what was going on, Phoebe stared at her older sister. "Wait a minute, you astraled out in a dream when your subconscious takes over."

"So what?"

"So I just studied this," Phoebe realized. It was so obvious; why hadn't she thought of this before? "It's psych 101. Freud. You're the ID, Prue's inner desires. Which means that _she,_" Phoebe looked at Prue's unconscious form, "is the ego, the control factor."

Astral Prue glared at Unconscious Prue. "Yeah, well, she is one big remote control and she has _always _got me on pause."

"I think I understand," Phoebe said softly, sinking back down into her chair. Suddenly, it was impossible to be mad at Prue anymore. "The sacrifices that you've made for us over the years…they've made you suppress your inner desires."

Prue sat down beside herself. She jerked her head at herself, "Yeah, well, don't tell me, tell her."

"No, I'm telling _you,_" Phoebe put forth, emphasizing the 'you' part. "Because you are Prue. I mean, you are both two sides of my sister. Prue, you have to stop devoting your entire self to the Charmed Ones. It'll tear you apart. _Literally._" After all, it had already started to.

Prue was subdued for a long moment. Then she looked back up. "Is Piper very mad at me?"

Phoebe laughed a little. "She'll get over it," she assured. Well, Piper would get over it…eventually. "And you know why?" Phoebe didn't wait for an answer. She pressed on, "Because we're okay now, Piper and me. We've both got passion and purpose in our lives…" Briefly, she wondered if now was the right time to tell Prue about her decision, and decided it wasn't. No matter how forgiving Prue was feeling at the moment, Phoebe didn't want to push her luck. Besides, the day was supposed to be Piper's, and they still had a wedding to save. So she finished her thought with, "…and you gave us that." Not entirely true, but close enough.

Prue watched her, slightly suspicious. Phoebe had seemed a little lighter as of late, and Prue wondered if it meant she had made her decision. She decided not to ask her about it though, because it would be too much and Prue felt she had done enough damage for one day. This day was supposed to be about Piper and Leo, not Prue, Phoebe and Cole.

And that meant it was time to go back. Prue's astral form faded out and her real form opened her eyes. She sat up, and Phoebe smiled at her. "Welcome back."

"Thanks." Prue had never been more grateful. "For everything." Feeling stiff, she forced herself to her feet. As she did so, she saw the destruction in the next room and Prue's heart fell. She walked over to inspect the damage. All the work they'd done earlier was ruined. "Oh. I cannot believe I wrecked Piper's wedding."

"Only part of you did," Phoebe consoled her.

"Is it too late to fix it?" Prue asked her hopefully. Her question was answered when the lights suddenly went out, and the two sisters were plunged into darkness.

Phoebe groaned, "Oh, now what?"

And that was when the police came charging through the decimated door, and arrested her older sister for murder.

XXX

But Prue would not be in jail for long. As soon as Leo and Darryl came up to him and informed him that Prue had been arrested for murder, Cole got the show on the road. He had been watching the murderer for quite some time now, and had formulated a simple plan of attack. When Darryl had sarcastically suggested asking him, Cole surprised them all by doing exactly that.

Moving like a hunter hunting its prey, Cole abandoned his for-show drink and followed the biker outside. The man was smoking a cigarette, unaware that his life was about to change forever.

"Is that the spot where they found the body?" Cole asked out of the blue to get the man's attention and hopefully rattle him a little. The less he had to show his demonic self, the better.

"Who are you?" the biker wanted to know. He did not answer Cole's question.

Cole shrugged, stepping closer. "I'm here to find out what you know about the murder that took place here last night."

Although the motion was so small that normal human eyes would never catch it, the biker tensed at the mention of the murder, and Cole smirked inwardly. He had his man. Even though he was trying not to show it, to a half-demon such as Cole, the biker's fear was palpable.

"Show me your badge," the biker ordered.

"Oh no, I'm not a cop." If only he knew Cole was a former ADA. Just to see the guy's reaction, he said, "I'm a fortune teller and I predict you're gonna give me a confession." Well, that was really Phoebe's gig, but Cole had a pretty good idea of how the evening was going to go.

"You're a funny man, huh?" the biker scoffed, trying to hide his nervousness. "Excuse me."

The man went to walk away, but Cole didn't let him. He grabbed the biker's shoulder. In retaliation, the biker managed to shove him off-balance, into the nearest bike. Cole let him; this man was really no match for him, even when he pulled out a knife that reeked of blood as much as he did. Cole was darkly amused. The biker clearly wanted to fight with him (more like kill him), but he had no idea who he was dealing with.

"I guess that's the knife you used on the victim when you found him unconscious, right?" Cole taunted as he easily dodged a knife swing.

The biker snarled, "You wanna closer look at it?"

He swung down. Cole easily stopped the blow, effortlessly holding the big man's wrist over his head. Confused and shocked that this smaller man had blocked his blow, the biker pushed down harder. He was no match for Cole's demonic strength.

"One more chance," Cole hissed. "Confess now and talk to the police."

"Or what?" the biker sneered. He immediately wished he hadn't asked the question.

Cole's features shifted, but not into a smirk or a glare. His prey watched in horror as the man in front of him grew to tower over him. Human hair and features disappeared to reveal a most demonic red and black face, complete with terrifyingly pointed teeth. Teeth that were then bared at him in all their demonic glory.

"Or deal with me," Belthazor growled. Just then, Darryl and Leo rushed outside. Leo didn't react to the demon standing in front of him, but Darryl nearly had a heart attack. Never having seen Cole's demonic form before, he fumbled to unholster his gun and point it at the being before him. Leo stopped him from shooting.

Belthazor turned the man to face them. "I think he's ready to talk."

Hesitantly, Darryl stepped forward to take the murderer off his hands. The biker went willingly; he would do anything to get away from the demon who had captured him. Darryl took him into custody with grim pleasure; he just hoped they could salvage Piper's wedding.

Now that their work was done, Cole and Leo had nothing else to do but go back to the manor. Phoebe was sitting on the couch Prue had previously occupied, and she jumped at their sudden arrival. Cole smiled as she got up and ran to him, throwing her arms around him.

"Good news?" she breathed.

Cole nodded. "We found him. He confessed."

Phoebe sighed in relief. "Good. There's good news on our end, too. Or semi-good, at least. Mom, Dad?"

Victor and Patty stepped forward. "We talked to Piper," Patty started. "Convinced her to calm down."

"And I think we got through to her," Victor added. "She just said she needed some time alone to really think things through."

Leo would have liked it if she had come back with them, but he could understand. It had been a trying day. All they had to do was wait.

XXX

Two hours later, they were still waiting. Leo glanced at the clock anxiously. 11:54. He ran his hand through his hair, and said, "I don't get it. Prue should be back by now, the police have the killer."

"They might have held her over for escaping custody," Cole suggested.

Victor shuffled anxiously, and he glared around the dark room. "Can we get some light while we're waiting?"

"No, Dad, the police cut the power line," Phoebe patiently reminded him as she lit some candles. Really, that had been unnecessary.

She looked up as the room suddenly glowed softly and Grams appeared. But her appearance did not herald good news. "I'm sorry, Patty," Penny apologized. "They sent me to take you back."

Take her back? No, they couldn't take her back! Phoebe had barely gotten to spend any time with her mother, and they had so much to make up. "No, it's not midnight yet, we still have five more minutes," she protested, going to stand beside her mother as if she could keep her there through force of will alone.

"I should have said something more to convince Piper," Victor chastised himself. Now she wouldn't get to get married with her mother in attendance.

Patty shook her head. "But you said everything," she reassured him. "You were wonderful."

At that moment, two of the three people they had been anxiously waiting for walked through the ruined door. Prue returned their stares as she and Darryl made their way into the darkened house. "What, not who you were expecting?" She turned to look behind her. Much to everyone's relief, it was Piper who followed them through the door, looking every bit the hurried, harried bride she was.

"Okay, what are we waiting for?" the middle Halliwell sister demanded. She walked up to Leo. "Don't look so shocked."

And just like that, the mood in the manor lifted to the heavens as everyone present realized the wedding was back on. The couple whom the day was truly meant to be about led them back to the altar, and Grams once again took her place behind it. Two minutes. Well, it would have to be the fastest handfasting ceremony ever.

Phoebe watched in amazement as her father, who had previously hated all Whitelighters, offered to be Leo's best man now that Piper no longer needed to be walked down the aisle. _'We really have come a long way,'_ she thought, shooting a glance at Cole. And if they could come this far, they could certainly make it the rest of the way.

Tears of joy leaked from her eyes, and everyone else's, as Phoebe watched her grandmother bind her sister, Piper Halliwell, and their Whitelighter, Leo Wyatt, in holy matrimony. Leo's vows were beautiful; Piper's vows were just as divine. Every single person present in the room cheered when Grams urged the elated groom, "Kiss her! Now!"

Leo did, and the kiss that seared Piper's lips was a kiss that touched them all. As she watched her sister finally marry the man of her dreams, Phoebe realized that their family had grown once again. They had now officially (if not legally) added another member to the family.


	7. Death Takes a Halliwell Pt 1

Chapter 7: Death Takes a Halliwell Part 1

"Phoebe…Phoebe…"

Phoebe Halliwell groaned and swatted at the hand that was disturbing her rest. Undaunted, Cole Turner kept up with his self-appointed task, nudging her until she finally opened her eyes and glared at him.

"What?" she growled, still half-asleep.

"It's nearly noon."

Blearily, Phoebe glanced at the clock. It was, indeed, quarter til noon. But that didn't explain why Cole was so insistent she wake up. Their lives were usually so hectic, a few extra z's when time allowed were usually not frowned upon. Cole, of all people, ought to understand this.

"So?" she muttered, closing her eyes again.

"So you're supposed to meet your sister in an hour."

This time, Phoebe's eyes flew open with no further prompting. The events of the past week came flooding back and she looked around the room, fully absorbing where they were. Piper and Leo had married a week ago; ever since then, the rest of the family had been trying to give them 'married people' time and space, as they hadn't been able to book a honeymoon. That meant spending as much time away from the house as possible. Prue had taken Phoebe's advice and had been spending more time with old friends. Phoebe herself had been spending nights in their father's guest room. She had been utilizing those nights to finally rekindle her relationship with Cole. The night of her sister's wedding had been the first time they had been 'together' ever since his return, and they had been enjoying every minute of it.

Most importantly, though, now that it had been a week since the wedding, Phoebe and Cole had decided it was finally time to tell Prue of their decision to keep the baby. Phoebe thought that maybe it wouldn't be so bad, now, because of her oldest sister's changing attitude and the fact that Cole had essentially exonerated her. However, she had decided to take no chances and do it in a neutral setting at the beach. Besides, who could stay mad at someone at the beach?

Hopefully, not even Prue.

XXX

Two hours later, Phoebe was no closer to telling Prue than she had been two weeks ago.

Instead, she had spent a whole hour building a useless sand castle which, as Prue pointed out, would be washed away 'in about five seconds flat.' Prue just…didn't seem to be in the right frame of mind. Phoebe didn't understand it. They were at a beautiful (if slightly cold) beach, were still rejoicing over their sister's recent wedding, and Prue was finally getting her social life back on track. What could be the problem?

"What's with the ba-hum castle attitude there?" Phoebe wanted to know.

Prue looked slightly distracted. "What?"

"The whole point of today was to relax and have fun," Phoebe reminded her. Well, that wasn't the _whole_ point, but Prue didn't need to know that yet.

"See, and I thought the point was to give Piper and Leo some alone married people time since they decided to wait on their honeymoon," Prue quipped.

"Okay," Phoebe hedged. That _had_ been part of the point, after all. But still, Prue didn't have to act like spending time with her sister at the beach was a chore. "So you're sure nothing's wrong?"

Busted. Prue looked a little bit like a deer in the headlights, and she looked away as she admitted, "The beach isn't exactly my idea of a good time."

Phoebe was astounded. "Prue, how is that possible?"

Prue sighed. "Okay, well, you're too young to remember, but this is where Grams brought us after Mom's funeral to try and cheer us up."

_Oh._ That would certainly explain why Prue didn't like the beach. Phoebe realized she'd made a mistake in suggesting this as a hangout spot. "Wow," she breathed.

"Yeah. You know, but I know that you love the beach and I didn't wanna ruin it for you, but something about the sand and the ocean makes me feel angry," Prue gestured to their surroundings.

"Why does it make you angry?" Phoebe had a degree in psychology; maybe she could help.

"Doesn't Mom's death make you angry?" Prue asked, perplexed.

Phoebe shook her head. Maybe she had just been too young, but… "It makes me sad."

Prue snorted. "Well, I don't do 'sad' that well, you know. I didn't even cry at her funeral."

Phoebe didn't even _remember_ her funeral; heck, she hardly remembered Mom. Everything that she hadn't seen or heard in her adult years was just…an impression. That was all—and it made her sad. But now Prue's attitude totally made sense. "So seeing Mom at Piper's wedding and now the beach…" she theorized.

"Yeah. So I'm sorry if I've been a little cranky," Prue apologized.

Phoebe accepted it without complaint. She also accepted that this was _not_ the time or place to tell Prue of her decision. "Say no more. Princess Prue has spoken!" she yelled, returning to her previously-playful attitude, and earned a smile from Prue. "By the order of the Queen, that's me…"

"Oh, I got that part," Prue rolled her eyes.

"Phoebeville, and all of its glory, will be abandoned for greater pastures and two lattes," Phoebe declared. _'__Well,__one__latte__and__a__hot__cocoa,__'_ she realized, somewhat mournfully. No more coffee for her, at least not for awhile. Starbucks would just have to wait.

"Oh, all hail the Queen," Prue readily agreed. Her mood may not be the best, but she could take comfort in the fact that there was a latte out there with her name on it.

They turned to make their way back up to the parking lot, and that was when Prue spotted her. There was a woman standing at the top, snapping photos of either them or the scenery. She stopped once Prue spotted her, and the two stared at each other. Or rather, the woman stared at Prue, while Prue stared at the figure behind her. It wasn't really a figure, so much as a big, dark shadow, and it was definitely not a trick of the imagination. Not knowing what else to do, Prue snapped a picture of it for future reference. The woman took off.

"Hey! No, no, no, wait!"

Phoebe came up to her, alarmed. "You okay?"

Prue pointed at the place where the woman and the shadow had just been standing. "There was this woman and there was a shadow next to her. It had to be demonic."

"A shadow?" Phoebe's breath caught, her mind flashing back to her recently-rediscovered childhood nightmare. "Like, what do you mean? Like a Woogy?"

"No, spookier, way spookier. I think I got pictures, though."

"So much for the lattes," Phoebe sighed. So much for telling Prue, too. "Looks like there's a new demon in town."

XXX

The two sisters were sorely disappointed when they got back to the manor. Prue's photos, as they turned out, showed nothing except the woman. No shadow, not even a distortion. Even worse, there was nothing in the book. The only thing they could do was contact Darryl Morris to see if he could track down the mysterious woman. Prue was heading to do just that when the doorbell rang. Phoebe answered it. Their visitor was Inspector Reese Davidson, DA Bureau of Investigations, and he didn't look happy.

"Inspector, how can I help you?"

"You can tell me where to find Cole Turner," Davidson ordered. "I know he's alive and I know he's in town."

Phoebe's breath caught, and she was sure he didn't miss it. How did Davidson know Cole was back? Surely Cole hadn't been so stupid as to reveal himself!

"Really?" she feigned surprise.

Unsurprisingly, Davidson didn't buy it. "Yeah, really. You wanna know how?" he hissed, taking a step closer. Phoebe leaned back, but didn't allow him entry into the manor. "Because his former landlady was found brutally murdered at this address." He showed it to her. It was Cole's old apartment.

"Mrs. Owens," Phoebe breathed, thinking back to the nosy but kind older woman she had met. "That's awful." But that didn't mean Cole did it, which Davidson seemed to be implying.

"Awful like you can't imagine," Davidson sneered. Well, Phoebe was pretty sure she could imagine, given that she'd seen some pretty awful murders in her time, but she wasn't about to let Davidson know that.

"Uh, Cole didn't do this," Phoebe tried to convince him. "The Cole Turner I know…"

Davidson pounced on her, figuratively if not literally. "The Cole Turner you know. See, now that just doesn't sound like the words of a woman who claims her boyfriend left her without a word four months ago."

He must really be upset, if he was getting the timing wrong. Phoebe was only 12 weeks pregnant; closer to three months, not four. She continued trying, "I know what you're thinking, and I know what this looks like, and I am so sorry for what happened to…"

The inspector cared little for words he felt were insincere, and didn't let her finish. Aghast, he hissed, "You're _sorry?_" Phoebe stepped back a little at his venom; he was really, truly angry and he proved it by giving her a description of the crime scene. "Her eyes were frozen open in terror, her skull punctured in two places, and by the time the police got there, most of her brain had spilled out onto the floor. Be sick, be horrified, but don't stand there lying to me and say you're sorry."

Phoebe hardly heard a word after the word 'floor'. This wasn't a human murder, as she'd been hoping. It sounded like the demons who were after Cole had found his landlady instead. They'd brutally murdered an innocent woman, and now, two (relatively) innocent people were about to take the fall for it.

"Alright, wait a second," Prue cut in, making Phoebe jump. She'd forgotten her sister was there. "You're talking to her like she did it."

Davidson glared at her. "If she's lying to protect Turner, then she might as well had." He turned back to Phoebe, getting right in her face. "Now, for the last time, where is he?" Phoebe said nothing; there was nothing she could say. Davidson shook his head disgustedly. He threatened, "I'm gonna find him, Miss Halliwell, and then I'm gonna bust his ass, and then I'm gonna bust yours."

They watched him leave in a fury. Phoebe tried to convince himself that he would never be able to bust them, as she doubted there was any physical evidence that would link them to the crime. But he could expose them.

"You okay?" Prue asked softly.

Phoebe turned to her. "He didn't do it, Prue," she said, in earnest. "I know he didn't do it."

Prue's expression was unreadable, making it hard for Phoebe to tell if she believed her or not. "Yeah, well, it's not me you have to convince." Phoebe nodded her assent, and they looked out the window. Prue started. Davidson was with the woman from the beach. They were talking, and the shadow was following them. "Oh my God," she pointed, and Phoebe looked. "That's her, the woman from the beach. Alright, look, do you see it?"

Phoebe saw nothing but a man, a woman, and a car. "No. All I see is Inspector Davidson and a woman. What does this mean? Is he having her follow us?"

"I'm more concerned about what's following her," Prue told her. "I don't understand why you can't see it."

"That doesn't matter, Prue, you _can._" Phoebe watched the two get into the car. "Do you think this has anything to do with the landlady's death?"

"It would be a pretty big coincidence if it didn't," Prue pointed out. "Alright, I'm gonna follow her to protect her from it. If I'm the only one who can see it, that must mean I'm meant to fight it."

Phoebe nodded. "Alright, but by the way the Inspector was describing the murder…" she trailed off, knowing Prue would know what she meant.

Prue did. "I know, I'll be careful. I think you should find Cole, tell him what happened and see if he knows anything about this shadow thing, 'kay? Bye."

Prue left, driving off in her own car. Phoebe, too, departed the manor. Her destination was the one place she could now talk to Cole safely—the mausoleum.

XXX

Cole was doing what he now spent most of his time doing—moving through different planes to dodge bounty hunters—when he felt it. Although he couldn't sense witches nearly as well as demons, he could sense Phoebe. More specifically, he was getting good enough to where he could sense if when she wanted him. Right now, he was feeling that distinctive pull. He willingly followed it.

Unsurprisingly, it led him straight to their preferred meeting place—the mausoleum. Phoebe came up to him, greeting him a, "Hey, baby," and a kiss. Again, Cole returned willingly returned both greetings, but he quickly pulled away. She wouldn't have summoned him to the mausoleum if it wasn't urgent.

"What's wrong?" he asked. Another thought occurred to him. It might not count as _urgent_, but… "Did you tell Prue about the baby yet?"

Phoebe, too, pulled back with a sigh. "No," she admitted and Cole gave her an annoyed glare. How long had they been putting this off? Too long. He was about to say so when she stopped him. "I know, I know," Phoebe put a finger to his lips, shushing him. "I need to tell her. But something else came up. Your landlady was murdered."

His annoyance momentarily forgotten, Cole listened as she described the shadow figure, the murder of his former landlady and Davidson's accusations against them both. If Davidson continued his investigation…

"I better get out of here," Cole immediately decided.

"What? Why?" Phoebe demanded.

"Because it's getting too dangerous," Cole explained. He didn't want to leave, but this was his battle. He knew that the sisters could hold their own against supernatural foes, but he wasn't sure they could handle that _and_ a mortal one. There was too much at stake here.

"So you're just gonna disappear again?" Phoebe was getting angry. If this was Cole's response every time there was danger, their newfound relationship was in trouble.

"If that's what it takes to keep you safe," Cole stated simply.

"What about keeping me _sane_, Cole?" Phoebe asked, exasperatedly. She was never going to be safe, and the sooner he got over that, the better. Sane was all they could hope for. "I'm not gonna lose you again."

"Some demon obviously knows I'm alive or at least suspects that. Why else would they have killed my landlady?" Cole ran his hand through his hair. "And if they killed her, they'll kill anyone they have to, to get to me."

"That is exactly why you cannot leave." Phoebe reminded herself that Cole was used to fending for himself, to working alone. Well, that wasn't how it would work with them. "We have to stop them before they hurt anybody else. Before they hurt you."

Cole took Phoebe's smaller hands in his larger ones. "They're after me, Phoebe, this is my battle. I'll handle it." He started to walk away.

Oh no, he didn't. Phoebe wasn't letting him leave that easily. "Cole," she called, and he stopped, turning back around to look at her. "I love you, and if holding onto that means I have to fight a couple of extra demons along the way, then bring 'em on."

Cole gestured at her stomach, to where their child was growing. "What about the baby?" he reminded her. "You shouldn't take unnecessary risks."

That was true but right now, it was a moot point. Prue had seen the shadow and Davidson was threatening all of them. Knowing she could now convincingly make her case, Phoebe simply said, "I'm already involved, anyway."

XXX

And that was the reason why, not too long after their meeting in the mausoleum, Phoebe and Cole arrived outside his apartment. Cole shimmered them in so that Phoebe's car wouldn't be seen in the lot. There was only one sleepy, inexperienced cop guarding their intended destination, and slipping past her was simple. In no time at all, they were stepping into his old abode.

Phoebe saw the blood stain. "Oh, God."

"You okay?" Cole asked, quietly shutting the door. "Try not to touch anything, you don't want to leave your finger prints."

"What if I want to get a premonition?"

"Use the back of your hand."

Phoebe followed his advice, touching various objects while Cole looked around the apartment. He went into the bedroom and a small smile crossed his face. Their baby had been conceived here.

"Did you find something?" Phoebe asked, coming over to him.

"Just this place. It's strange to be back here," Cole commented as he looked around his bedroom.

Phoebe leaned her head against his shoulder. "I know. It's strange to be back here too."

"This was the first taste I had of a normal life," Cole explained. "There were mornings I'd wake up next to you and I didn't feel evil. I was just a guy in love with a beautiful girl. I wanted it so much. I started to believe that lie."

"That's not a lie anymore," Phoebe told him, smiling. She rested one hand against her belly. "We can have that. We can have a life together. Heck…we already made one."

Cole smiled back at her. Yes, they had.

As she slowly moved away from him, Phoebe's hand brushed against a lamp. She gasped as her mind was violently ripped from the room they were in and into a place that was dark and gray. A mausoleum. Inspector Reese Davidson was there, only long enough to be killed by what she would swear looked like a vampire of myth. Prue, too, was nearby. She watched as the man was killed. She did nothing.

The air exploded out of her lungs and Phoebe stumbled as she came out of the vision. Cole was right there. He was concerned. "What did you see?"

"Prue, she turned her back," Phoebe cried, spinning to face him. Desperately, she asked, "Why didn't she do anything to stop them?"

"Stop who?"

"Uhh, demons," Phoebe thought back over her vision, cringing away from its viciousness. "They…sort of had vampire teeth and they were floating. They were killing Davidson."

Cole recognized her description. They weren't vampires—right now, as far as he was concerned, they were worse. "I know. They're seekers. They have ways of gathering information fast." By ripping it directly out of their chosen victim's brain. "Really fast."

"Do you know how to vanquish them?" Phoebe asked anxiously.

"No," Cole admitted. He had never dealt with a seeker before.

"Then let's hope the Book of Shadows does."

Now that they had what they had come for—knowledge of who and what had killed Mrs. Owens—Phoebe and Cole quickly departed. They made a quick stop back at the cemetery to get Phoebe's car before going back to the manor. Once there, Phoebe brought the Book of Shadows down to the much comfier living room and began flipping through it. The seekers were easy to find. She pointed to the page.

"Here it is. The seekers. They gather information by feeding on their victims' brain stem cells. Lovely," she remarked sarcastically.

Cole already knew that. "Which means that my landlady must have talked to Inspector Davidson about me, that's why they're after him. Does it say anything about demons taking on shadow form?"

"No, but it does have a vanquish. Wanna see it?" Phoebe held the Book up to him.

Cole quickly got up and moved away, wanting to put as much distance between himself and the Book of Shadows as possible without actually leaving the room. "Oh, no, no, no," he shook his head. "Last time I touched that book, it electrocuted me."

Phoebe smiled and laughed. "Yeah, well, maybe because your intentions were evil. Maybe it knows now you're trying to be good."

Cole held his hands up. "Better safe than sorry." Absently, both parents-to-be wondered if the Book would reject their baby later in life. Probably not, since it wasn't rejecting Phoebe right now. And their baby would be three-quarters human, with two-thirds of that lineage being witchy in nature. The baby would be fine—they hoped.

At that moment, Prue walked in and Phoebe momentarily forgot about the Book. She looked…defeated. Phoebe's heart sank; things hadn't gone well on Prue's end.

"Alright, I need the Book," the eldest Charmed sister declared. Then she noticed Cole. Feeling slightly outraged, she demanded, "Wait a second, what is he doing here next to it?"

"Keeping my distance, don't worry," Cole reassured her.

Prue looked like she was about to say something else, but Phoebe interrupted her. "Uh, pardon the potential understatement of a cliché, but you look like you've seen a ghost."

"Yeah, among other things." Prue's shoulders slumped. "I lost my innocent."

"Davidson?" Cole asked.

"No, his partner. I mean, she was out of my sight for two seconds and then they got her," Prue sank down at the coffee table.

Phoebe pointed at the Book. "Was that them?"

Prue looked at the page she was pointing to. Those demons certainly looked familiar. "Yeah, I think so."

"They're demonic lie detectors," Phoebe explained. "Only no one survives their test."

"They killed Mrs. Owens and now they're after Davidson," Cole added.

Prue gave him a hard, chilling look. "To get to you?" she asked pointedly.

"Yes, to get to me," Cole admitted. Prue's unspoken accusation that he was to blame for this hung heavy in the air, and everyone was silent for a moment. Finally, Cole turned back to Phoebe and said, "Maybe I should deal with this on my own."

Phoebe shook her head. "No, you can't. You said it yourself. You don't know how to vanquish them."

"Unfortunately, this isn't the only evil we're up against either," Prue remembered. She grudging accepted that they might still need Cole's help.

"You mean the shadow?"

"Yeah." Prue turned back towards the empty entryway, calling, "Leo! Leo!"

Leo and Piper appeared in a swirl of bright, white orbs. Brighter still was the…lamp?...that Leo carried in his hand.

"What's with the lamp?" Phoebe asked.

"Bright, isn't it?" Piper commented. It was obvious that she didn't like it.

"Uh, yeah." Prue brushed it off, and moved on to the real reason she had called her sister and brother-in-law back down to Earth. "Leo, is there such a thing as Death? I mean, the Angel of Death?"

"Yeah, sure. Why?" Leo asked.

"Because I met him," Prue stated.

Phoebe stared at her. The Angel of Death? Really? "What, are you kidding me?"

"Yeah, that's how the shadow introduced himself to me when he took Davidson's partner," Prue explained quickly. "And then he said he would be back, too, I'm assuming for Davidson."

If that was true…Cole sighed inwardly. "He's not working with the demons," he informed Prue matter-of-factly.

"No, he can't be," Leo agreed. "The Angel of Death isn't evil."

Prue snorted. "The hell he isn't. And if I can see him, that must mean I'm supposed to stop him."

"Prue, you can't stop him," Leo put in. "The Angel of Death always gets what he comes for."

Prue brushed him off. "Yeah, well, not this time. Alright, I need to get a hold of Davidson. If I can get him here, I can protect him better."

Piper, however, stopped her. "Hold it. Davidson? As in, Reese Davidson, the DA investigator? He's the innocent?"

"Yeah, is that a problem?"

"One great big giant one. Prue, we can't protect him without telling him we're witches," Piper exclaimed.

"Yeah, I know that, Piper, but I don't care, okay?" Prue took a deep breath. "I cannot stand by and watch death take that man."

"But that's what you do," Phoebe interjected quietly. She explained, "At least, according to my premonition. You turn your back when the demons attack."

Prue stared at her, shocked. Phoebe's power must've been fritzing, because she would never turn her back on an innocent. "Then you saw wrong," she declared. "I'm not gonna let Death take any more of my innocents. I'm tired of losing people. So, Phoebe, do you have Davidson's card?"

As Phoebe left the room to get it, Cole watched the oldest sister out of the corner of his eye. That was part of her problem, he mused privately. She couldn't accept both the good and the bad in the world around her. Things were all one or all the other, as far as Prue Halliwell was concerned. And she would never be truly happy until she could bring herself to believe otherwise.

Cole quietly excused himself, wandering out into the hallway. He needed to get to Davidson first so the man couldn't expose them all. Once he was sure no one was looking, Cole shimmered. He arrived in the hallway of Davidson's office, where a flurry of activity was taking place. Paramedics were covering a dead woman, likely the partner Prue had been talking about. Other people were processing the crime scene. That mattered little to Cole—the man he had come for was in imminent danger. He could sense it. The seekers were coming.

Davidson came down the hall and Cole stepped in front of him. "Forget about the Halliwells, it's me you're after," he said lowly as Davidson jumped back in shock. "I'll tell you whatever you want to know, I promise." Well, everything that wasn't supernatural, anyway, which wasn't much. "Just not here, it's not safe."

Davidson thrust his hand off when Cole put it on his shoulder. "Don't touch me!" he shouted. "You're under arrest, Turner, and I will personally see to it."

Not if he was dead. "Wait," Cole hissed, as that feeling of approaching danger grew stronger.

"What do you mean, wait?" Davidson demanded. Cole didn't answer, at least not verbally. Instead, he grabbed the man again—and shimmered. Two seconds later, they were once again in familiar surroundings—familiar to Cole, that is. He had, once again, chosen his father's resting place as a hideout spot.

Davidson jerked away from him. "I'm sorry, it was our only chance," Cole apologized, not feeling sorry at all. He had just saved the man, after all. "They might be able to track me, but they'll have a hard time sensing me in a cemetery."

Their only chance? Tracking? Sensing? What the hell was Turner talking about. Reese panicked. "How did we get…What the hell's happening?" He looked around wildly at their dark and dreary surroundings. Good God, he was in a crypt! "What's happening to me?"

"Just breathe, try to calm down," Cole advised. Really, this man was supposed to be a hardened cop, so Davidson's reaction seemed slightly ridiculous to him. He had to remind himself that not all cops were Darryl Morris.

"Who _are_ you?" Davidson demanded.

"Somebody who just saved your life." Cole took a step towards him, and Davidson hurriedly backed away. "Try to calm down, Inspector. If I were a murderer, I would have killed you by now."

"Just-just-just let me go, then," the inspector stammered. "I'll just walk away."

Fat chance, on either count. "But I can't do that," Cole protested calmly. "If the demons get to you, they'll find out the way to get to me is to kill Phoebe and I can't let that happen."

"You say _demon_."

Cole smirked to himself. If only the man knew, although it probably wouldn't be long before he did. "Only as a metaphor."

XXX

Miles away at the Halliwell Manor, Prue waited anxiously by the phone. How long had it been since she had called? Davidson wasn't answering any calls or any pages, and that worried her. "Something must have happened to him," she decided, heart twisting.

Phoebe down the stairs. "Cole's gone," she announced.

"What do you mean, 'gone'?" Leo questioned.

"I mean, he's not here. I've looked everywhere," Phoebe sighed, realizing what must have happened. "He must have gone after Davidson alone, to protect us."

"Yeah, but if the seekers get to him first…" Piper trailed off.

Phoebe understood—they all did. Davidson and Cole would die, and so would they. They had to get Cole to bring him back to the manor, where everyone could protect them both. "The mausoleum," she said, and everyone looked at her. "He could've taken him to the mausoleum. That's where Cole stays."

"Is there any chance that's where you saw the Inspector die in your premonition?" Piper asked.

"Maybe," Phoebe admitted. It had definitely been _a_ mausoleum, she just didn't know which one. Even more frightening was the fact that if the Inspector was dead, Cole might be, too—the seekers would only have been able to get to Davidson after going through Cole. She quickly dismissed the thought, not wanting to alarm herself further. "Let's go."

"I could astral there faster," Prue pointed out.

"What if the demon shows up?" Leo asked. "You can't vanquish them, you'll need the Power of Three spell."

"So then I won't vanquish them," Prue stated. "I'll just protect Reese long enough to get him outta there."

Phoebe started, "Prue…"

Prue turned to her. "Phoebe, your premonition is not gonna come true." Perhaps her knowing about it had already changed it. "I told you, this is one fight Death is not gonna win."

XXX

Cole was not having any luck in getting Inspector Reese Davidson to calm down. The man had just tried to escape for the umpteenth time, and Cole had pushed him back against the wall. He was vaguely aware that he was going about this 'calming down' thing all wrong; he just didn't know what else to do. And he didn't have a chance to correct himself for, just when he was about to try again, that was when the seekers chose to appear.

"Belthazor, I assume," the first seeker intoned.

Cole played dumb. "I'm sorry, who?"

"We sensed your shimmer." The seekers seemed to smirk a little. "You're losing your touch."

Cole abandoned his ploy. "Leave him out of this," he ordered; not that an order from him would carry meaning any longer.

"Why would we want him?" the seeker wanted to know. "Now that we have you."

"Unless the human knows something Belthazor doesn't want us to know," the second seeker added.

They didn't have the chance to find out. Prue Halliwell astralled in, and Cole had never been more glad to see back-up, no matter who that back-up happened to be. "Hi. Need a little help?"

"What are you doing here?"

In response, Prue winked at him and Cole was thrown for a loop. Davidson just panicked even more and asked how _she_ had gotten there.

The seekers looked between the demon and the witch, and smirked. "Well, well, well. The mighty Belthazor, in bed with a witch."

Cole would have laughed out loud, if the situation hadn't been so dire. Yes, he was in bed with a witch, but not _that_ witch. Prue might be attractive, but he'd never betray Phoebe for her sister. And Prue would never have him, which she proved by wrinkling her nose and saying, "Don't make me sick."

Just then, Davidson tried to make another escape and the situation lost whatever humor it might have held. The seekers went after him, and Prue and Cole went after the seekers. She had just completed a vicious kick that had sent the second seeker into a cement statue when Cole heard her shout, "No!"

"Prue!" he called, sending the first seeker flying off of him. Less than a second later, the second seeker had taken his partner's place, and Cole was right back where he started. He was vaguely aware of Prue shouting at another person. When Cole looked, if he'd had the time, he would have stared in disbelief. Prue was fighting…air. Each blow was precise and yet it landed on nothing that Cole could see. He knew that Prue didn't really like him, but he couldn't believe that she was kicking and punching air while an ally fought off two enemies by himself.

Once again, the seekers regained his attention. Wanting to end this as quickly as possible, Cole flung an energy ball at them. But apparently the seekers decided that discretion was the better part of valor, for they faded from existence before the deadly shot could ever come into contact with their bodies. Prue and Cole found themselves alone in the mausoleum—well, alone, save for the unconscious Davidson.

Panting, Cole stared at her. Finally, he asked, "What the hell were you doing?"

XXX

Phoebe absently watched her sister and brother-in-law move from place to place around the room, repositioning their overly-bright lamp. She was paying little attention to their bickering, as most of her attention was on two other members of her family. Prue had only been gone for 15 minutes, but those 15 minutes had seemed like an eternity to Phoebe. She had gone from very worried to nearly _insane_ with worry. Phoebe felt only a little guilty for snapping at Piper and Leo over their argument about the lamp. How could they worry about something like that at a time like this? They should be more worried about…

"Cole!"

The very two family members Phoebe had been agonizing over walked into the living room, and Phoebe's heart soared with relief. They weren't dead, they were okay. Except for Davidson, who appeared to be unconscious, as he was draped over Cole's shoulder.

"I wouldn't revert to my demon form and I could've used some help," Cole was saying as he laid Davidson down on the couch.

"I was busy saving Davidson," Prue shot back. Phoebe thought this sounded like an argument that had been going on for awhile.

"No, that's what I was doing," Cole corrected her.

"Hello?" Phoebe tried to get their attention. "What happened? Is he okay?"

"He almost wasn't," Cole responded. "The seekers were at the courthouse waiting for him."

"And then they tracked Cole to the mausoleum," Prue added.

Leo was concerned. "How do you know they didn't track you here?"

"They retreated first. They have to be close to a shimmer to track it," Cole replied.

"They retreated?"

Prue tossed her head back proudly. "Yeah. I kicked ass."

Once again, Cole corrected her, "No, you kicked air."

Prue sighed, exasperated. "No, I told you that I was fighting the Angel of Death and I obviously won."

That made no sense. A person couldn't _beat_ Death, no matter how hard they tried. Cole thought her life should have taught her that. Leo tried to point that out; Prue would have none of it. In her mind, she had beaten Death, the greatest enemy in Life.

Right now, the Angel of Death didn't matter because there was nothing they could do about it. What did matter was the fact that seekers would be even more determined to get to Davidson, as they now knew that _he_ knew something that Belthazor didn't want them to know. "If you had just worked with me," he started.

Prue glared at him. "You know, you're not exactly the poster boy for teamwork, Cole," she accused.

Piper backed her up. "Hey, you were supposed to stick with us, remember?"

Yes, he did remember. And that wouldn't have worked. "I was trying to protect you," he defended. "All of you."

Cole was not quite stunned (but very nearly so) when Prue said, "You know, the one thing you failed to consider, Cole, is no matter how dangerous Davidson is to us, you were more dangerous."

Hadn't they moved past that? Cole protested, "Wait a minute, I think that I proved myself to you…"

Phoebe jumped in before another argument could erupt. "No, Cole, that's not what she meant," she hastened to reassure him. "You're a part of our lives now. You know almost everything about us. If you had lost…"

If he had lost, Phoebe and her sisters would have been doomed. Cole slumped as he realized his error. "The seekers could use what they know to destroy you," he finished. Almost inaudibly, voice pitched so that only Phoebe could hear him, he added, "I'm sorry."

Phoebe smiled. "I know."

"I better check with the Elders, this is getting complicated," Leo said. They watched as he disappeared in a swirl of bright lights. Naturally, Davidson woke up just in time to see _another_ magical movement.

Yes, this was indeed getting complicated. For the millionth time that day, Cole sighed.


	8. Death Takes a Halliwell Pt 2

Chapter 8: Death Takes a Halliwell Part 2

_'__Sitting__ in__ a __car __for__ 16 __hours __isn__'__t __quite__ hell __on __Earth __but __it__'__s __close,__'_ Phoebe thought sourly as she fidgeted in her seat. She and Piper were observing the funeral of Davidson's partner, Andrea, which Davidson himself was attending. The sisters had been unable to stop him from leaving the manor without leaving a few of their own morals behind. Besides, people would have come looking for him. Letting him go had made everyone nervous, but they figured he wouldn't tell anyone about his experiences—yet—because he figured no one would believe him.

Right now, Phoebe was on the phone with Cole and he was telling her about her sister's prolonged absence. Prue had left right after they had, and she should have been back by now. But, as Cole informed her, no one was there.

"I'm going out of my mind," he proclaimed.

"Try sitting in a car for 16 hours," Phoebe snorted.

"No sign of any demons?" Cole asked.

"No, not yet. But Davidson led us to a, uh…" Phoebe thought the better of telling him they were at a funeral. He was already worried enough about her, he didn't need the reminder that another woman had recently been killed by the demons they hunted.

"To a what?"

"Never mind. If Prue comes back, tell her to call us. I love you." Phoebe hung up. She couldn't afford to be distracted, not when she was supposed to be paying such close attention from a distance. "Okay, so now what?"

Piper sighed tiredly. "Well, we can't crash the funeral. I guess we just watch from here."

"I don't understand," Phoebe commented. "You tell a guy that Death is after him and he goes to a cemetery. How smart is that?" Well, maybe he hadn't been as panicked as they thought. Davidson might have thought, from the brief amount of time he had spent with Cole, that a cemetery was a safe place for him.

Unfortunately, it wasn't.

Phoebe's heart skipped a beat as Piper suddenly pointed and they watched the two seekers walk up to the helpless man. Climbing out of the Jeep, they watched in surprise as Davidson remained dignified and followed the two murderers away from the funeral. He had to know that he was walking to his own execution; he must have wanted to spare everyone else the agony. Phoebe had to admit; now she admired him a little.

Moving quickly, she and Piper followed the trio to a church. Phoebe realized, with chilling certainty, that this was the place she had seen in her vision. To make matters worse, when she and Piper tried to get in, they couldn't. The door was jammed.

Instead, they pounded and pulled on the door. Gunshots rang out inside as Davidson opened fire on his attackers. "Reese!" they shouted. His bullets were just as effective as their shouting, which was to say, ineffective at best. The bullets passed harmlessly through one of the seekers.

"Reese, get out of there!" Phoebe shouted.

"Run!" Piper screamed.

Even if Reese had heard them, there was little chance he could have acted on their pleas. The two seekers approached him, looking like hunters closing in on their hapless prey. There was nothing anyone could do.

At least, that was what they thought until Prue arrived. Phoebe jumped as her oldest sister materialized on the other side of the door without warning, and her hopes soared…before they crashed. The scene in the church played out exactly as she had seen in her vision. The seeker sank his fangs into the Davidson's brain stem, killing him instantly, and Prue turned away, unable to watch. Just like Phoebe had seen, her sister did nothing to stop the murder that occurred right in front of her.

Satisfied, the seekers disappeared, and Prue did nothing to stop them.

At that moment, the object that was blocking their entry finally gave way and Piper and Phoebe burst in. Davidson's prone form was lying on the floor, never to rise again. And Prue…Prue was just standing there, looking sorrowful and defeated. Well, she should. She had lost their innocent, which she had promised would not happen.

"Are you okay?" Phoebe demanded.

Prue wouldn't look at her. "I don't know."

"Did the demons do something to you?" Phoebe questioned.

"No."

"How did you even get in here?" It hadn't looked like she has astralled in.

"Death brought me."

Well, that was unexpected. "I'm sorry," Phoebe said quietly. She knew how much Prue hated Death.

"You know, I don't completely understand it myself," Prue began. And she didn't. She didn't understand why, after having watched an innocent man die, she…wasn't as angry at Death as she had been over the last 23 years.

"Prue, how can you stand there and let him die?" Piper wanted to know, slightly aghast.

"Because it was his time, alright," Prue snapped. "I wanted to save him but I couldn't."

"You didn't even try," Piper accused.

Prue did not respond to her. Instead, she knelt down beside the fallen man and, to her sisters' everlasting astonishment, began to cry. "I'm sorry," she whispered, tears dripping down her face. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

Trading glances, Piper and Phoebe stepped forward and pulled their sister away from the body and the crime scene. They couldn't be spotted here; there was nothing they could do, so they needed to go home. On the way back, Phoebe tried to call Cole, to update him on the situation.

There was no answer. No matter how many times she called, there was no answer.

"Should I astral there?" Prue asked.

"I think we should stick together," Piper replied grimly. The seekers knew something; if they knew something, that meant the sisters, and everyone on their side, was more vulnerable.

Phoebe gripped her seat in preparation. She ordered, "Faster."

Piper floored it.

XXX

The phone rang, and Cole walked back into the foyer to answer it. Phoebe must have an update for him. Had they vanquished the seekers?

No, they had not. Said seekers appeared right in front of him as he reached for the phone. Cole quirked an eyebrow. "Ever hear of a doorbell?"

The first seeker quipped, "We thought we'd surprise you." And then they jumped him.

Cole barely even noticed it when the fight moved into the living room. Not caring what Piper would think, he smashed an antique lamp over one of the seekers' heads, sending the demon crashing into a table. The other seeker, however, was still up and running—right at Cole, who threw him off when the seeker's fangs got a little too close for comfort. The energy ball he fired went astray, and destroyed a fixture instead. Undaunted, the seeker once again lunged at his prey. This time, they were the ones who crashed into a table. Cole heard, rather than felt, his head hitting the wood, and the world around him went black.

Those moments he spent fighting would have been his last moments on Earth if his saviors hadn't arrived at that very moment. Prue, Piper, and Phoebe stormed into the manor, Prue and Phoebe leaping into the fray while Piper went to Cole. Thankfully, his loss of consciousness was only momentary, and she began pulling the dazed man to his feet.

"Okay, come on, come on," she urged, and Cole slowly gained his feet and watched the scene before him. Apparently, the sisters had the situation well in hand and his help would not be needed. Having temporarily dealt with her foe and seeing her boyfriend on his feet, Phoebe abandoned her fight and made her way back over to them.

"Cole," she breathed.

"I'm fine," he assured her. Reassured, Phoebe went to stand beside Piper. Realizing what they were about to do, Cole turned towards the eldest sister, who was still beating the hell out of her opponent. "Prue," he called, and to his surprise, she looked at him. He gestured to her sisters. "Don't."

Prue needed no other encouragement. She joined her sisters, and prepared to end it once and for all. Phoebe had pulled out the spell, and they gathered close, chanting,

"_Knowledge gained by murderous means_

_Is wisdom's bitter enemy._

_The mind that burns with stolen fire_

_Will now become your funeral pyre!"_

All four watched in relief and grim satisfaction as their enemy was engulfed in flames. Once they had fully disappeared, Phoebe wasted no time in going back over to Cole. She drew his face down to hers and kissed him soundly. Cole gladly and fervently returned the gesture. They were safe. _She_ was safe, and that was all that mattered to him.

Prue surveyed the burn marks on the floor, and looked back at her sister and her sister's demonic boyfriend. "Well, at least we saved one," she commented softly.

Astounded and overjoyed, Phoebe pulled back slightly. Cole looked at her, equally shocked and a little bit proud of himself. "Wow, did you hear that?" Phoebe breathed. "You just reached innocent status."

_'__Not__quite,__'_ Cole thought. He had done too many evil things in his life to ever be one of their innocents. But it was close enough. Cole knew he had hit an important milestone, in bridging the gap between himself and his lover's oldest sister and in joining her family. For that, he was happy.

They didn't kiss again, but the couple did not separate even when Leo arrived and explained why he had not been able to help them. Prue had needed to learn the lesson by herself, he revealed. And she had learned it. The hard way. Phoebe watched as her sister excused herself, likely to think about everything that had just happened. Phoebe wanted to anything but. "Come on," she whispered, pulling on Cole's hand. He willingly followed her up to her room, and they gladly shut the door on the rest of the world.

To Phoebe's disappointment, Cole wasn't ready to let the events of the day go, yet. As soon as he was sure nobody could hear them, he confessed, "Phoebe, I'm going to be a danger to the baby."

At least he didn't beat around the bush. Phoebe didn't plan to, either. "That may be true," she had to admit. "But we still need you. You'll need to teach her to control the powers she inherited from you."

_She?_

Phoebe and Cole looked at each other, smiles appearing on both of their faces as they realized that this was the first time they had actually referred to their baby—their _daughter_—as a girl and not an 'it.' Together, they envisioned what their little girl would look like. Would she look more like Phoebe? Or more like Cole? It didn't matter. What mattered was that she was _theirs_, and they would take care of her to the best of her ability.

"You know," Phoebe sounded a little pensive, an entirely different sort of smile crossing her features. Cole felt himself come to attention. There was no way any man could avoid that look. "I've heard that sex is good for the baby…and after the day we've had…"

Indeed.

XXX

Late the next morning, Prue crept into the house, not wanting to disturb anyone. Piper's car was gone but Phoebe or Leo or even Cole might be there. The day after a tough vanquish was usually spent catching up on z's, and she wanted to begrudge no one that particular gift. Prue, herself, though, had not partaken in it. She had spent her morning at the beach, a place she had once hated, talking to a being she had once hated. Death was not evil, she knew that now, she just…didn't know what to think. He had finally made her do what no one else had ever done: cry over her mother's death. It had not felt good. But Prue knew she had needed it. Now she needed a glass of water before she moved on to her other plans for the day.

"Morning, Prue."

Prue jumped as she entered the kitchen. Phoebe was there, and she appeared to be alone.

"Hey," she returned awkwardly. "Um, how's Cole?"

Phoebe looked slightly surprised, but she covered it up. "Good. He left a few minutes ago. He said he was coming back tonight, I think he has something planned."

Something planned? Prue didn't want to think about that. "Hey, Pheebs, are you doing anything today?"

"No, why?"

"Well, I was…I was thinking we could go shopping this morning." Prue had been doing a _lot_ of thinking today. She knew that she and Phoebe needed to talk. What better way to have a sisterly talk and finish mending fences than to do it over racks of new clothes?

Once again, Phoebe was surprised. Prue wanted to go on a shopping trip with her? Ah, that must mean she was ready to talk. Which meant it was probably time for _that_ talk. Phoebe couldn't put it off any longer. She tried not to squirm; they needed to do this. "Sure. Just let me get my purse."

A mere five minutes later, they were climbing into Prue's car and on their way to the mall. Phoebe glanced at her older sister. Prue had had a rough few days, and she was bound to be feeling the effects of that. "How are you feeling?"

Prue shrugged. "Better." And she was. That just wasn't what she wanted to talk about. Prue cut right to the chase. "You've decided to keep the baby, haven't you," she stated, rather than asked, quietly.

This time, Phoebe didn't bother to hide her shock. Of all things, she had _not_ expected Prue to bring this up right now, all on her own. She had thought _she_would have to be the one to address it. But it appeared that she was going to be spared that particular pain, and Phoebe found herself nodding. "Yes," she confirmed, somewhat shakily as she watched for a negative reaction. There was none, so she plowed on, "Okay, I know that you're worried about it, but it'll be okay, I promise, and I talked to Grams about it and…"

"Phoebe, you're babbling," Prue interrupted.

Oh. Yes. She was. Phoebe stopped talking.

Prue took a deep breath. This was one of the those things she had spent a lot of time thinking about last night and this morning, and she had reached a decision. "It's okay with me," she announced.

Phoebe could swear that her heart stopped once again, but not out of horror. No, it was for completely the opposite reason: joy. Well, shock and then joy, but still joy. That joy was tinged with disbelief. Prue was okay with her keeping the baby? Hadn't she been the one most ardently against it? When had that changed?

She voiced that question aloud, and Prue thought about it. "Maybe learning to accept one thing, Death, is helping me accept others," she finally decided. "Maybe realizing that Death, which I have hated all my life, is not evil helped me realize that…Cole isn't necessarily evil, either." She glanced at Phoebe, before looking back at the road. "It's more like everyone is a product of how they were raised."

Cole had been raised evil. But this baby, his daughter, would not be. Phoebe and Cole's little girl would be raised in a family that loved her and would teach her the virtues of good over evil. Phoebe was…_elated._ For the first time since she had found out she was pregnant, her entire family was finally happy for her.

"I think I was jealous," Prue admitted, and Phoebe looked at her. "That was part of my problem accepting the baby and your relationship with Cole. I mean, I'm the oldest, and it's selfish, but sometimes I feel like I should get to do some things first. But Piper got married for real first and you're going to have a baby first."

Phoebe nodded. She had suspected this might be part of the problem, ever since she had spoken to Prue's ID last week.

"I think I subconsciously realized it at the rehearsal dinner," Prue continued, thinking back over the past two weeks. "I just didn't really process it. It was a lot to take in."

"And that was when the dreams started."

"Yep." Prue pulled into the JCPenney's parking lot and found a spot right in front of the store. As they went in, she admitted, "It'll take me a little time before I'm completely comfortable with all of this. However," she turned to face Phoebe, a real smile on her face. "I want to make up for the way I've been acting."

Phoebe started to say she didn't need to, but Prue pointed at a sign and Phoebe realized what section of the store they had entered through. Prue held up a t-shirt. She said, "I want to buy you your first maternity top."


End file.
